Appeal No. 97-2035
Application 08/161,234
surface from being able to deflect surface debris as is
recited in claim 7.
Accordingly, we reverse the rejection of claims 7 and 8
as being unpatentable over Kume, Shiroishi or Tsuchiya in view
of Abo and Coughlin.
The rejection of claims
1, 2, 6, 9 and 10 over Horiuchi and Abo
The examiner correctly found that Horiuchi discloses an
assembly in which the slider has a conductive coating and is
grounded to the base of the housing. The examiner concludes
that because the spindle of the disk would be at the same
potential as the housing, it would have been obvious to one
with ordinary skill in the art, alternatively, to connect to
slider to the disk. In rebuttal, the applicants argue that
spindles are not necessarily electrically connected to either
the base or the disk. In a supplemental examiner’s answer,
the examiner specifically found that an electrical connection
from the disk to the housing through the spindle was well
known in the art and cited Abo to support that finding. In
response to the citation to Abo, the applicants do not argue
that the electrical connection from the disk to the housing
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