Appeal No. 2005-2750
Application 09/460,221
Claims 2, 4, 5 and 7-9 have been rewritten in independent form and
also amended to overcome the §112, second paragraph, rejections.
Regarding claim 4, the applicants note that the control means selects one
of a plurality of light emitting means which are associated with the
converging optical systems. By selecting one of the light emitting means,
an aberration caused by the difference of the disk substrate thickness is
minimized. Regarding claims 6 and 7 [sic; claim 7], the control means
is defined as generating a control signal which is provided to the selecting
means in accordance with the discrimination signal. Regarding the issues
raised in the Office Action concerning claim 30, it is noted that this claim
depends indirectly on claim 9, and the “N converging grating couplers” are
defined in claim 9. It is respectfully submitted that all pending claims are
now in full compliance with §112 and are in condition for allowance.
(Emphasis added.) November 17, 1992, Amendment at 9.
Following entry of this amendment, the ‘629 application issued as Patent
5,235,581 on August 10, 1993. Amended application claims 2, 4, 5, and 7-9 became
claims 1, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 19, respectively, of the patent.
F. The Reissue Application
Of the five independent claims (26, 33, 38, 43, and 48) before us, claim 26 is the
broadest:
26. An optical recording/reproducing apparatus for recording,
reproducing or erasing an information signal onto/from any one of N types
(where N ≥ 2) of optical discs having first layers of different thicknesses,
each type of said optical discs having at least said first layer being
transparent and a second layer for storing information, said apparatus
comprising:
a light emitting means for emitting a light flux; and
a converging means for converging said light flux on said second
layer of one of the N optical discs through the first layer as a light spot and
for performing aberration correction at said light spot; and
wherein when the first layer of a first disc of said N optical discs has
a thickness (d1) smaller than a thickness (d2) of the first layer of a second
disc of said N optical discs, said converging means converges the light
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