Appeal No. 1997-3980
Application 08/253,887
provided such an additional shaft since doing so “would further secure the disks in the
upper potion of the magazine 90.” The overall teachings of Noguchi as a whole
indicate that the disks are relatively secure within the magazine anyway. Therefore, the
artisan would have had no need to further secure them. We also do not agree with the
examiner's rationale that the shafts essentially have the same claimed purpose. There are
significant functional limitations relating to the recitations in representative independent
claim 1 on appeal, for example, relating to the first shaft and the second shaft and their
relationship to each other in their respective positions, such that in these first and second
positions they define a gap. The examiner's reasoning provides no rationale how the
examiner proposes the artisan would have arrived at the claimed gap in an alignment with
the common plane of the playback position. The examiner's position as to the motivation
to modify Noguchi is conclusory and speculative.
Therefore, we reverse the rejection of independent claims 1 and 15 and dependent
claim 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
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