Appeal No. 98-0816
Application 08/286,287
fastener such as a screw) and Starcevic (as teaching a clamp spring and washer), stating that use of a
clamp spring, and screw would have been obvious (Answer, page 7), and "would have resulted in
structure equivalent to that set forth in the present application as corresponding to the ‘means for
mounting . . .’ language in question" (Answer, page 8). We cannot agree with this reasoning. As
stated by appellants at pages 27 to 28 of the Brief, an analysis of the corresponding structure of the
means-plus-function language at issue here, the "means for mounting . . ." found in claim 36, requires the
following structure in order to achieve the claimed function: a clamp spring, a screw threaded fastener,
and an offset flange surface. This structure, along with its attendant function as recited in the claim and
disclosed in the specification (i.e., mounting by compressing the stator axially), is not met by any
combination of the references applied by the examiner.
We agree with appellants (Brief, pages 27 to 28 and 33) that the examiner has failed to treat
the offset flange surface in his analysis of the corresponding structure, and that this is an important part
of the structure and function corresponding to the "means for mounting . . ." We also agree with
appellants (Brief, page 28) that a clamp washer is not essential to achieving the function recited in claim
36 of mounting the stator. We also agree with appellants (Brief, pages 33 to 36) that Starcevic
concerns a large hydroelectric generator with radially stressed stator laminations and not a means for
mounting a stator in a disc drive assembly to axially compress the stator without using adhesive, and
that therefore the artisan concerned with mounting a stator in a disc drive assembly as in Jabbari would
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