Appeal No.1999-2236
Application No. 08/408,036
Nakamura that it is only necessary to concentrate on asperities in the top bearing ratios
since these bearing ratios affect the slider during contact with the disk. The examiner
relies on Suzuki for the teaching of using asperities, or protrusions, with a “high rate of
curvature” on a recording medium in lieu of sharp protrusions since it improves head
touching. The examiner then concludes that it would have been obvious to provide the
protrusions of Nakamura in the upper bearing ratios with a radius of curvature as taught
by Suzuki so that the slider has an improved head touching.
For their part, appellants argue that the applied references are not combinable
because they relate to fundamentally different media, Suzuki referring to a flexible,
plastic tape media rather than the rigid body of the claimed invention; that neither of the
references suggests the radius of curvature specification recited in the pending claims;
and that neither reference recognizes the problem solved by appellants of how to form
or configure the surface of a rigid recording medium so that a transducer operating in
contact with the medium at high speeds during read/write operation for long periods
resists a catastrophic wear rate which would otherwise be expected and unacceptable.
Turning to the first argument, we agree with the examiner that Nakamura and
Suzuki are sufficiently related that the artisans would have applied certain teachings of
one to the other. More specifically, appellants argue the non-combinability of the
references because Suzuki’s method of making a binder/granule layer would destroy
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