Appeal No. 1999-0056
Application No. 08/734,431
According to Dr. Fleming, the finding that the thicker
recording layer is more sensitive was surprising and
unexpected because "[i]t follows that the energy per unit mass
available for mark formation in the thicker layer should be
less than in the thinner layer" (page 2 of Declaration,
paragraph 4).
Regarding the disclosure of Howe, Dr. Fleming states that
Howe "shows that increased absorption occurs at the second
reflectance minimum relative to the first minimum, and they
indicate a preference for that thickness, whereas the present
invention deals with (at or near) the second reflectance
maximum relative to the first maximum" (page 3 of Declaration,
first full paragraph). Dr. Fleming goes on to state the
following at page 3 of the Declaration:
These two situations are quite different.
Howe et al. teaches that more light is
absorbed at the second reflectance minimum.
This does not teach us that increased
recording efficiency would be observed in the
CD-R application by working at the second
reflectance maximum. In the present
invention, we show that when the recording
layer thicknesses are coated near the first
and second reflectance maxima so that about
the same amount of light is being absorbed, a
2mW sensitivity increase is observed with the
second reflectance maximum coating. This
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