Appeal No. 2004-0530
Application No. 09/696,557
Claims 1, 10 and 15 require a magnetic tape head assembly comprising read
elements, write elements and servo readers placed asymmetrically about the center of the
tape head taken perpendicular to the direction of the tape motion. The Examiner asserts
that the prior art servo readers described in Figure 1 are placed asymmetrically about the
center of the tape head taken perpendicular to the direction of the tape motion.
Specifically the Examiner states that the “AAPA shows a magnetic tape head assembly
107 comprising read elements 108; write elements 109; and servo readers (110, 113 are
asymmetric and 111, 112 are asymmetric), respectively, placed asymmetrically about the
center of the tape head taken perpendicular to the direction of the tape motion.” (Answer,
p. 4).
The Examiner’s position is contrary to Appellants’ description of Figure 1
appearing in the specification. According to the specification, Figure 1 is illustrative of a
tape head data track positioning system using servo tracts and symmetric readers.
(Specification, p. 1). The specification, pages 6-7, discloses “the servo readers 110-113
[of Figure 1] are placed symmetrically about the write bumps containing write elements
109 and aligned on the read bumps containing read elements 108.”
The present record indicates that tape heads comprising a sufficient number of
servo readers that would provide a symmetric arrangement are excluded by the claimed
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