Appeal No. 96-1837
Application No. 08/083,372
disk, adjacent elements similar to the adjacent elements of the
instant claims, substituting a spacer which has an “intermediate”
thermal expansion coefficient, as claimed. At first blush, the
examiner appears to state a reasonable position.
However, on closer consideration, it is our view that the
artisan would not have applied Kobashi’s teaching to the spacer
of Ishikawa. Ishikawa’s spacer is made of a rubber material and
conforms to the adjacent members as their displacement changes
due to temperature changes. Therefore, the question presents
itself as to why the skilled artisan, faced with this teaching,
would look to Kobashi. It appears that Ishikawa’s device works
very well without any reason for seeking an improvement whereby
the rubber spacer is changed to a metal spacer, or buffer, with a
thermal expansion coefficient value intermediate the coefficient
values of the adjacent members in Ishikawa. Moreover, Kobashi is
concerned with eliminating deformation at the arms of a disk
driver. Without appellants’ disclosure before him/her, it is
doubtful that the artisan would have had any reason to apply the
teaching of an “intermediate” thermal expansion coefficient value
of a buffer to the elements of the disk drive that appellants do.
There is a general teaching at page 2 of the translation of
Kobashi about eliminating deformations arising from differences
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007