Appeal No. 2002-1914
Application 09/247,889
sliders and batch processing (see Column 7, lines 3-12).” From
this teaching, the examiner concludes that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
appellant’s invention to individually shape the APA sliders as a
matter of choice between art recognized equivalents, each having
their own advantages.
With respect to the second difference, the examiner contends
that it is conventional in the etching arts to create surfaces at
an acute angle to the masked surface by using the “rounded” masks
as exemplified by Sawada at Figures 7A-7E. From this teaching,
the examiner has concluded that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellant’s invention
“to have achieved the chamfer discussed by APA at page 2, lines
16-18 of the instant specification by the technique exemplified
by Sawada et al to realize the advantages inherent to etching
versus mechanical machining.” The examiner further asserts that
“this substitution, and its attendant advantages, is [sic] common
knowledge in the manufacturing arts and in the shaping of air
bearing surfaces as discussed by APA at page 1, lines 18-22 of
the instant specification.”
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