Appeal No. 2002-1339
Application No. 09/148,239
The examiner holds that although not shown in Imamura, it is
established that sliders are incorporated into a hard disc drive
system and that that would necessarily include a disc mounted to
a motor, and an access arm.
The examiner admits that Imamura does not show that the
fingers in the actuator of Figure 4(a) used in the hard disc
drive move in a direction parallel to the fingers. But, the
examiner states that Imamura shows another actuator, in Figure
4(b), wherein the fingers in the actuator move in a direction
parallel to the fingers, and, since Figures 4(a) and (b) are the
same, except that the springs are configured differently, it
would have been obvious to reconfigure the springs in the
microactuator of Figure 4(a) into the Figure 4(b) configuration
to make the microactuator have its fingers moving in a direction
parallel to the fingers, the motivation being the provision of a
“constant force” and “smoother actuation” (answer, page 5).
It is our view that the examiner’s proposed modification of
Imamura’s Figure 4(b) can only be reached through impermissible
hindsight since Imamura does not suggest the proposed
modification and treats the two actuator embodiments separately.
Moreover, we agree with appellant that one would not seek to
modify Imamura in order to use a comb actuator, as depicted in
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