Appeal No. 2001-1574
Application No. 08/856,050
of the head carriage in an inward radial direction of said disc recording medium
when said shutter is in said open position.
The examiner relies on the following reference:
Akiyama 5,444,691 Aug. 22, 1995
Claims 1-7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
appellants’ admitted prior art (disc cassette, shown in Figures 9A and 9B of the
disclosure) in view of Akiyama.
We refer to the Final Rejection (mailed Nov. 12, 1998) and the Examiner's
Answer (mailed Jun. 18, 1999) for a statement of the examiner's position and to the
Brief (filed Apr. 9, 1999) for appellants’ position with respect to the claims which stand
rejected.
OPINION
The examiner finds (Answer at 4) that the difference between the prior art disc
cassette, as shown in Figures 9A and 9B of appellants’ disclosure, and the claimed
invention is the recess in the base portion of the slide bar (or the “projection/gap
configuration,” relevant to claims 4-6). The examiner points to Figures 27 and 28 of
Akiyama for an “unnumbered” recess “in the front surface of the slide bar.” The
examiner concludes (id. at 4-5) that the claimed subject matter would have been
obvious because the artisan would have recognized that providing such a recess would
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