Appeal No. 2003-0037
Application 09/924,681
the tip contacts the display, a printed circuit board 11, 11', a
tetrafluoroethylene bushing 8, 8', and a tip-loading rubber
gasket 6, 6'.
Applying Verrier against independent claim 1 (see page 3 in
the answer), the examiner finds that the tips 4 and 4' on
Verrier’s stylus constitute front and rear input members, and
that while tip 4 meets the claim limitation requiring the front
input member to be made of a synthetic resin, tip 4' does not
meet the claim limitation requiring the rear input member to be
made of an elastic material softer than the synthetic resin. To
overcome this deficiency, the examiner looks to Takahashi.
Takahashi discloses a touch panel input device which
includes an input pen 13 and a deletion pen 12 for contacting the
panel and attenuating acoustic waves traveling therethrough. The
input pen has a writing tip thickness W1 and the deletion pen has
a writing tip thickness W2, wherein W1 is less than W2. When the
touch panel is contacted by one of these pens, it determines the
width of the writing tip, and hence the identity (input or
deletion) of the pen, and functions accordingly in an input mode
or a deletion mode. Of particular interest is Takahashi’s
teaching that “[o]ne of the pens having a greater thickness
4
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