Appeal No. 1997-2316
Application No. 08/329,616
(Supplemental Reply Brief, pages 2 and 3) that:
All of the claims 1-11, 14, 17 and 18 require a
single tray with three concentric recesses, at least
one of which is circular to accommodate a so-called
“naked disc” and another of which is rectangular to
accommodate a cartridge. As in claims 12 and 15,
the first recess accommodates a disc which is larger
in diameter than the disc accommodated in the second
recess. The third recess is the smallest. In
claims 1-11, the third recess is rectangular. In
claims 12-18, the second recess is rectangular.
To obviate these claims the Examiner now
combines two references, Suzuki ‘961 modified in
view of Suzuki ‘465 to have a single tray with the
claimed arrangement of three recesses for
accommodating naked discs and cartridges. However,
Suzuki ‘465 specifically teaches that if discs and
cartridges are to be loaded, then separate trays
must be used. See page 8, lines 6-17 of the Suzuki
‘465 English translation:
“... [A] system directly employing discs is
readily realized in an identical
information recording/reproducing device by
replacing the cartridge tray with a tray
provided with multiple steplike disc-shaped
slots.” [Emphasis provided].
This arguably defeats the Examiner’s rationale for
the modification of Suzuki ‘961 and is exactly the
opposite of what is taught and claimed by the
Applicants. Suzuki ‘961 does disclose a tray which
can accommodate a naked disc or the same disc in a
cartridge, however there appears to be no suggestion
of a single tray accommodating any one of a
combination of three different sized discs, one of
them larger than the disc in a cartridge.
Suzuki ‘961 and ‘465 only disclose two recesses.
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007