Appeal No. 1998-0139
Application No. 08/503,320
discloses the thickness of the first layer to be 100 Angstroms and the second layer to
be 1000 Angstroms which fall within the ranges of the claims. Thus, Kato describes
embodiments which would motivate one of ordinary skill in the art to use layers in
thicknesses which render the claimed subject matter obvious. Appellants have not
established the criticality of the thickness of the layers.
For the reasons stated above, the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 1 to 6 is
affirmed.
Claims 7 to 10 describe a magneto-optical recording medium comprising a
reproducing layer comprising Nd Gd (TbFeCoCr) wherein a and b are atomic
a b 100-(a-b)
percentages and a recording layer comprising TbFeCoCr. The Examiner has not provide
rationale for modifying Kato’s first magnetic layer to include Gd. As stated above, the
examiner has the initial burden under § 103 to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness. In the absence of sufficient factual evidence or scientific rationale to
establish why and how a skilled artisan would have arrived at the subject matter of
claims 7 to 10 from the applied reference, we find that the initial burden of establishing
the prima facie obviousness of the claimed subject matter has not been met. The 35
U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 7 to 10 is reversed.
Claims 11 to 20 describe recording medium comprising five layers.
Specifically, a substrate, a dielectric layer, magneto-optical recording medium
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