Appeal No. 2002-0313
Application No. 09/302,106
Appellants further point out that Gustafson, in column 3, lines
1-5, discloses that “printed circuit board 24 is considered to be
part of disk drive assembly 20" and therefor, provides no direct
connection to the host computer (id.). Appellants conclude that
Gustafson’s printed circuit board is not directly connected to a
host computer and disk and instead, is connected to the
elastomeric layer (brief, page 4).
The Examiner responds to Appellants’ arguments by stating
that the shock-absorbing material 40 of Gustafson is positioned
directly between the circuit board and the cage 54 which is, as
depicted in Figure 3, secured to the computer chassis (answer,
page 4). The Examiner adds that Gustafson’s cage 54 is located
within a computer chassis and must be “directly” touching the
computer since some kind of connection is needed to secure these
parts within the computer (id.). The Examiner further argues
that Appellants’ disclosure neither provides any particular
definition for the “direct” connection nor specifically shows a
“computer” (id.). Relying on the breadth of claim 1 and the
extent of Appellants’ disclosure, the Examiner asserts that
Gustafson does teach a direct connection between the computer and
the cage (answer, pages 4 & 5).
4
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