Appeal No. 1997-0678
Application 08/406,768
Pollard et al. (Pollard) 5,012,371 April 30,
1991
Mizuno et al. (Mizuno) 57-064331 April 19, 1982
(Japanese Kokai)
Claims 11 and 13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Pollard and Mizuno. The Examiner
finds that Pollard discloses a conventional disk drive having
a start-stop area, parking zone 32, but does not disclose the
start-stop area having a radial downslope. The Examiner finds
that "Mizuno et al shows in figure 2c an inner area of
magnetic recording disk 40 having a thickness that decreases
from an inner part to and [sic] an outer part of disk 40"
(Examiner's Answer, page 4). The Examiner concludes
(Examiner's Answer, page 5):
It would have been obvious to a person having
ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to modify the annular start-stop area of the disk,
i.e. the inner area of the disk, of Pollard et al so that
the thickness decreased from the inner part of the inner
area of the disk to an outer part of the inner area of
the disk as taught by Mizuno et al.
The rationale is as follows: One of ordinary skill
in the art would have been motivated to modify a disk so
that the thickness decreased from the inner part of the
inner area of the disk to an outer part of the inner area
of the disk to "improve the flatness and also to decrease
the weight inertial moment, by constituting a disk so
that its thickness is made gradually thinner toward the
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