Appeal No. 96-3388 Page 3
Application No. 08/036,857
and second, parallel rack gears respectively
disposed on opposite sides of said disk, a semi-
circular rack gear interconnecting corresponding
ends of said first and second rack gear, said first
and second rack gear and said semi-circular rack
gear constituting a continuous U-shaped gear path,
an optical pickup assembly disposed on said gear
path and being movable from one side of said disk to
opposite side thereof, said pickup assembly
including an optical lens and drive means for
driving said pickup assembly along said gear path,
the optical pickup lens cleaning device comprising:
means, disposed proximate a center of an
arc of the semicircular rack, for cleaning the lens
of said optical pickup assembly during its movement
from said one side to said opposite side, wherein
said lens cleaning means includes a fixed shaft
connected at opposite sides thereof to a fixed frame
and a brush rotatably disposed on said shaft.
The references relied on by the patent examiner in
rejecting the claims follow:
Okamoto et al. (Okamoto) 5,157,648 Oct. 20, 1992
Kusaura 2-193330 Jul. 31, 1990
(Japanese Patent)
Takei et al. (Takei) H4-82001 Mar. 16, 1992
(Japanese Patent)
Claims 8 and 9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
obvious over Okamoto in view of Kusaura and Takei.
(Examiner’s Answer at 3.) Rather than repeat the arguments of
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007