Appeal No. 2006-2457
Application No. 10/358,831
establishing that undue experimentation is required for the skilled artisan to make
or use the invention as disclosed.
We agree with appellants that the drawings sufficiently illustrate the
structure of the invention including the spring members. Furthermore, we agree
with appellants that the skilled artisan could readily couple such spring members
to the anchor and suspension in any known manner including conventional
mechanical coupling methods.
The operation of the invention is clearly shown in Figs. 5A and 5B of the
present application. As shown in those figures, suspension 520 with data head
530 is swept laterally over storage media 506 by the interaction of the magnetic
fields generated in the actuator component (i.e., by current flowing in coil 540)
and magnet 470. The spring arms 550, however, bias the suspension to neutral
position 570 due to the expansion and contraction of spring arms 550 [Figs. 5A,
5B; specification, page 11, line 10 – page 13, line 5].
Furthermore, the specification states that the spring arms are designed to
provide a biasing force that counteracts the applied actuation force from the
actuation component [specification, page 9, lines 20-23]. To this end, the springs
are designed to be bent out of plane, and the thickness of the spring arms
depends upon the desired flexibility or biasing force for a particular application --
preferably 200 microns thick [id., lines 23-29].
Based on the disclosure, we see no reason why the skilled artisan could
not make or use spring arms that are 200 microns thick to provide a biasing force
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