Appeal No. 98-0003
Application No. 08/601,896
explained infra, we believe the reference evidence adduced by
the examiner in support of the rejection is sufficient to
establish a prima facie case of obviousness of the subject
matter of representative claim 1. Accordingly, we will affirm
the § 103 rejection thereof, and because of the altered thrust
of our reasoning, designate our affirmance to be a new ground
of rejection under 37 CFR § 1.196(b) in order to provide
appellant a fair opportunity to react thereto (See In re
Kronig, 539 F.2d 1300, 1302-03, 190 USPQ 425, 426-27 (CCPA
1976)).
Considering first Ouwerkerk, this reference pertains to a
cartridge 2 for containing a disc 1 during both a storage
mode, and an operational, or scanning, mode in a playback or
recording device, without requiring the disc to be removed
from the cartridge. Accordingly, Ouwerkerk’s cartridge
corresponds to appellant’s claimed “support” or “cartridge”
(element 1 in appellant’s drawings). Like appellant’s
cartridge, the cartridge of Ouwerkerk includes a window
through which the read head of the playback device accesses
the disc. The cartridge of Ouwerkerk is equipped with
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