Appeal No. 2001-2088
Application No. 09/121,177
(the patent is discussed at pages 2-3 of the instant
specification), the improvement being the detection of the edges
of the through hole in the positioning arm. The specification
explains how such detection is used to provide non-invasive arm
position sensing which results in an efficient way to directly
and accurately determine the position of a very small positioning
arm and providing for adjustment of the position by producing
highly defined positional feedback.
Nevertheless, the examiner finds that the instant claimed
invention would have been obvious over the disclosure of Tsai,
referring to column 6, line 60 to column 7, line 29 of the
reference. The reference detects the edges of the reflected
laser beam and the examiner holds that it is an “alternative
equivalence...to detect the beam edges is merely a true
indication of the through hole edges, since the amount of light
beam incident on the photo detector going through the hole is
directly proportional to the amount of the light beam blocked by
the hole edges” [answer-page 3].
While the examiner’s rationale may have some credence if
there was some indication that the laser beam passing through the
hole does not diverge, i.e. the width of the beam passing through
the through hole is the width of the through hole if it does not
-4–
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