Appeal No. 1998-0695
Application 08/400,320
portions of the disc drive from contamination, the seal in
Elsasser is not formed between the specific components as
recited in claim 1. We cannot find in any of Elsasser’s
embodiments a teaching of using the flange portion of the
shaft/hub assembly, the outer race of the upper ball bearing
assembly, and the inner surface of the bearing sleeve. The
examiner’s position that the Elsasser seal fully meets the
labyrinth seal as recited in claim 1 is simply based on pure
conjecture and speculation which is not supported by any of
the embodiments of Elsasser.
Since the examiner has improperly relied on the
teachings of Elsasser to teach the labyrinth seal of claim 1,
the examiner’s rejection fails to establish a prima facie case
of obviousness. Therefore, we do not sustain the rejection of
claims 1, 6 and 7. Although claim 8 is grouped separately
from claim 1, claim 8 contains the same labyrinth seal feature
just discussed, so we also do not sustain the rejection of
claim 8.
We now consider the rejection of claim 9 based on the
teachings of Crapo and Tanaka. The examiner again cites Crapo
as teaching various features of a disc drive. The examiner
-8-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007