Ex Parte Lee et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Sep 19, 2012

11643775 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 19, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARKOFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
11/643,775 12/22/2006 Hoo San Lee 22208-00-US 4144
73462 7590 09/19/2012
Hall Estill Attorneys at Law
(Seagate Technology LLC)
100 North Broadway, Suite 2900
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-8820
EXAMINER
CHAU, LINDA N
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1785
MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE
09/19/2012 PAPER
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL
AND APPEAL BOARD
____________

Ex parte HOO SAN LEE, HOON SANG OH,
SOK HYUN KONG, and SEONG YONG YOON
____________

Appeal 2011-003899
Application 11/643,775
Technology Center 1700
____________

Before HUBERT C. LORIN, JEFFREY T. SMITH, and
BEVERLY A. FRANKLIN, Administrative Patent Judges.

PER CURIAM

DECISION ON APPEAL

Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner's
rejection of claims 1-6. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on appeal and is set
forth below:

Appeal 2011-003899
Application 11/643,775

2
1. A perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprising:

a perpendicular magnetic recording layer formed on a substrate; and

a single soft magnetic under-layer formed between the substrate and
the perpendicular magnetic recording layer,

wherein the soft magnetic under-layer comprises an alloy of a non-
magnetic material and a magnetic material which exists in the form of
granular nanoparticles in the non-magnetic material, and at least two of the
magnetic nanoparticles are spaced apart from one another by a
predetermined distance so as to mutually make an anti-ferromagnetic
coupling within the soft magnetic under-layer in a direction substantially
parallel to a surface thereof facing the substrate.

The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on
appeal is:
Ihara et al. (Ihara) US 2004/079104 Mar. 11, 2004
Bertero et al. (Bertero) US 2005/0008902 A1 Jan. 13, 2005
Ogiwara et al. (Ogiwara) JP 2002/063718 Feb. 28, 2002
Matsumoto (Matsumoto) JP 2004/227666 Aug. 12, 2004

THE REJECTIONS
1. Claims 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
anticipated by Bertero.1
2. Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Bertero in view of Ihara.

1 On page 3 of the Answer, the Examiner inadvertently listed claim 10 as
being rejected in Rejection 1, but claim 10 was cancelled as indicated by
Appellants on page 4 of their Brief.
Appeal 2011-003899
Application 11/643,775

3
3. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Bertero in view of Ogiwara.
4. Claims 4 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Bertero in view of Matsumoto.
ANALYSIS

We reverse the above rejections based on the findings of fact,
conclusions of law, and rebuttals to arguments expressed by the Appellants
in the Brief and Reply Brief.
The decision of the Examiner is reversed.
REVERSED

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