Appeal No. 1998-0146
Application 08/407,058
these up and down operations the brush member 9 contacts the
objective lens about 50 to 60 times (translation, p. 23).
The Examiner finds that Yamamoto does not disclose
"moving the objective lens toward and away from said
cleaning disk," as recited in claim 1, but that this is
taught by Sugano. The Examiner concludes that it would have
been obvious to "have the cleaning control means [in
Yamamoto] include a command to move the objective lens
toward and away [from] the cleaning disk during a cleaning
sequence to allow for shorter brushing members on the disk,
reducing the chance of strands from the brush falling off
and adversely affecting recording/reproducing of the
apparatus" (FR3; EA4-5).
Appellants argue that the motivation to combine
references is not disclosed, implied, or suggested in the
prior art (Br7). It is argued that the Examiner's rationale
is based on the problem of strands falling off the brush
requiring shorter brush strands and modifying Yamamoto to
accommodate the shortened strands by reciprocating the lens
toward and away from the cleaning disk and that this
problem/solution scenario is not discussed in either
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