Appeal No. 97-2035
Application 08/161,234
Both Kume and Shiroishi discuss an objective of
discharging the accumulated charge on the slider and Shiroishi
specifically discusses electrically grounding the slider.
(Kume at 4; Shiroishi at 3). However, it appears that
Tsuchiya does not. The examiner has not pointed to any
portion of Tsuchiya which teaches discharging the slider or
grounding the slider.
With additional reliance on Abo, the examiner has set
forth a prima facie case of obviousness with respect to the
rejection based on Kume, and the rejection based on Shiroishi,
but not with respect to the rejection based on Tsuchiya. The
applicants have not successfully rebutted the prima facie case
of obviousness. It is not necessary that Abo itself disclose
a closed path from the slider to the disk. That reference has
been relied on only to support the examiner’s finding that an
electrical connection from the disk to the base through the
spindle was well known.
The examiner is correct that given the objective of
discharging or grounding the slider, as taught by Kume or
Shiroishi, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary
skill in the art to connect the slider to the disk because it
9
Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007