Appeal No. 97-3926
Application 08/481,091
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the
examiner's final rejection of claims 35-43. We affirm-in-part.
A. The invention
The invention is a method of using a cleaning tape to
clean the head of a VCR. As shown in Figure 3, the cleaning
tape includes a microabrasive non-recordable leader portion 36
for cleaning the capstan 18 and pressure roller 20 (see Fig.
5) and a recordable scrubbing portion 34, which includes
audio/video segments 58, 60, 62, 64, and 66 (Fig. 6)
containing instructions for use of the cleaning tape (Spec. at
12, line 10 to p. 13, line 18). Each of segments 58, 60, 62,
and 64, which correspond to different cleaning sessions,
instructs the user to stop the tape and eject it without
rewinding. Segment 66, which corresponds to another cleaning
session, instructs the user to rewind the tape in the "rewind
scan" (also called "reverse search") mode before ejecting it
from the VCR. When the tape has been completely rewound to
the position shown in Figure 5, the abrasive portion of the
now stationary tape is engaged by the rotating capstan 18,
which is thereby cleaned by the tape. Consequently, the head
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