Appeal No. 97-1398
Application 08/295,225
from reaching the magnetic heads. We agree with appellants that5
Sasaki and Siddiq do not suggest this combination. Even assuming
for the sake of argument that it would have been obvious to
combine Sasaki's cleaning leader with Siddiq's cleaning/
instructional tape, it would not have been obvious from these
references to make the leader short enough to prevent it from
reaching the magnetic head. Indeed, Sasaki specifically
discloses making the cleaning leader long enough to reach the
magnetic head as well as the capstan (col. 2, lines 43-47).
Consequently, we are reversing the rejection of claim 2 based on
Sasaki in view of Siddiq, as well as the rejection of the
dependent claims that were rejected as unpatentable over these
two references, i.e., claims 4-6, 11, 13, 14, 28, 38, and 41.
The rejections of the remaining dependent claims (i.e., claims 7-
10, 17, and 39) are reversed because the foregoing deficiency is
not cured by the additional references cited against those claims
in the final Office action (i.e., Nelson, Nagaoka, and Kubota).
5This limitation reads: "wherein when the cleaning
cassette is inserted into the VCR the tape is capable of cleaning
the heads, tape guides, and capstan with only the front side of
the tape portion contacting the heads, regardless of the internal
configuration of these components in the VCR" (emphasis added).
- 12 -
Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007