Appeal No. 2002-1157
Application No. 08/901,940
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner
bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of
obviousness. See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28 USPQ2d
1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993). A prima facie case of obviousness
is established by presenting evidence that the reference
teachings would appear to be sufficient for one of ordinary skill
in the relevant art having the references before him to make the
proposed combination or other modification. See In re Lintner,
458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972). Furthermore,
the conclusion that the claimed subject matter is prima facie
obvious must be supported by evidence, as shown by some objective
teaching in the prior art or by knowledge generally available to
one of ordinary skill in the art that would have led that
individual to combine the relevant teachings of the references to
arrive at the claimed invention. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071,
1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988).
Our review of Hyde confirms that the reference relates to a
head assembly wherein a slider for mounting a read/write head is
mounted on a load beam (col. 2, lines 50-62). Hyde discloses
that (col. 5, lines 15-26):
Near the outboard end of the load beam, generally arcuate
holes are etched through the load beam to leave roughly
circular gimbal pad 49 in the center. A slider 31 (hidden
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