Appeal No. 2003-0065
Application 09/491,284
Claims 23 and 24
Claim 23 is taken as representative.
Appellants argue that claim 23 recites "the pad includes a
hyperbolic-shaped portion," which Brezoczky fails to teach
(Br13). It is argued that the examiner's assertion that Fukuoka
teaches a slider 1 with a hyperbolic-shaped bottom portion is
incorrect because the passage at column 10, lines 30-32, refers
to the leading edge of the slider (Br13). Moreover, it is
argued, if Brezoczky was modified so the slider body had a
hyperbolic shape, it is unclear how read/write head 17 could be
properly formed on surface 58 which would be curved (Br13).
Fukuoka teaches that one end portion of the slider in Fig. 7
has an outer shape defined by part of a parabola, a circle, or an
oval (col. 10, lines 30-32). We interpret this to refer to the
outer shape of the bottom surface since the description
immediately follows the description of Fig. 6 which states that
the surface has a circular or oval outer shape and since what is
being discussed is the shape of the bottom surface. Moreover,
Fig. 7 clearly shows a surface which can be described as an
"outer shape" defined by "part of" a parabola, a circle, or an
oval. While Fukuoka does not expressly teach a hyperbolic shape,
Fukuoka's teachings of parabolic, circular, and oval shapes would
have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art that other
shapes, whether or not describable by a mathematical function,
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