Appeal No. 1997-0252
Application 08/200,820
Appellants argue that the probe produced in Clabes does not have magnetic
properties, and the method of making the probe in Clabes would not suitably function as a
magnetic force microscope [brief, pages 14-15]. As we noted above, Clabes relates to
atomic force microscopes which teachings have application as magnetic force
microscopes. A probe in Clabes made for use as a magnetic force microscope would
clearly have magnetic properties since it is required to sense magnetic forces [column 2,
lines 14-25]. The methods of manufacture in Clabes are also not relevant to the claimed
invention. There is no method of manufacture before us. The question before us is
whether Clabes teaches or suggests the obviousness of the probe, per se, and not any
method of manufacture of such a probe. We are not persuaded by appellants’ bare
allegations that a probe of the type claimed cannot result from the teachings of Clabes.
Appellants argue that even if the Clabes probe is coated with a hard-magnetic
material, the magnetization direction of the hard-magnetic material is not always parallel to
the magnetization direction of the magnetized surface of the sample [reply brief, pages 7-
8]. The magnetization direction of a hard-magnetic material will remain constant in the
direction established regardless of the presence of a magnetic field. Clabes states that “it
will probably be advantageous to produce an elongated magnetic tip shape, which would
guarantee that the tip be magnetized along its long axis” [column 10, lines 34-37].
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