Appeal No. 1999-2003
Application No. 08/751,545
examiner combines Gatti, Koyanagi, and Hishinuma to protect the
hard disk drive from both vibration and shock.
Appellants argue (Brief, pages 4-5, and Reply Brief, pages
1-2) that the references provide no motivation for the
combination. Specifically, appellants state that neither Gatti
nor Koyanagi teach or suggest different vibration characteristics
for the supporting members and the maintaining members to
optimize absorption of different types of external forces.
Further, appellants assert that neither Gatti nor Koyanagi
distinguishes between different types of external forces and,
therefore, there's no motivation to combine the elements from the
two references.
We disagree with appellants' assessment of the references.
Gatti discloses (column 1, lines 17-19) that magnetic and optical
disk drives "are prone to generating errors when they are
subjected to mechanical vibration and/or mechanical shocks when
in operation." Gatti solves the problem with rubber or plastic
compressible vibration isolators. Koyanagi, on the other hand,
states (column 1, lines 36-40) that a fixed magnetic hard disk
storage apparatus "could not be freely exchanged and carried
around until recently, because it is relatively large-sized and
has a mechanical structure of high precision which is very
vulnerable to shock." Koyanagi solves the problem of external
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007