DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gilbert et. al. [11,495,249].
Regarding claim 1, Gilbert teaches:
A magnetic disk device comprising: a magnetic disk comprising a track including a plurality of unit recording regions arranged in a line in a circumferential direction [fig. 2, magnetic recording medium 214];
a magnetic head comprising a write element that writes data to the track and a light emitting element that irradiates a write position by the write element on the magnetic disk with laser light [fig. 1, with transducer 108 and laser 106];
and a processing circuit capable of executing any write operation of a first write operation of writing a first value in a first unit recording region that is one unit recording region among the plurality of unit recording regions, a second write operation of writing a second value different from the first value in the first unit recording region, and a third write operation of writing a third value different from both the first value and the second value in the first unit recording region [fig. 2, controller 222],
the first write operation being an operation of bringing a magnetization state of the first unit recording region to a first state by supplying a positive recording current having an amplitude of a fourth value to the write element while causing the light emitting element to output the laser light, the second write operation being an operation of bringing the magnetization state of the first unit recording region to a second state different from the first state by supplying a negative recording current having an amplitude of a fifth value to the write element while causing the light emitting element to output the laser light, the third write operation being an operation of bringing the magnetization state of the first unit recording region to a third state different from both the first state and the second state by supplying a recording current including a recording current having an amplitude of a sixth value to the write element, the sixth value being a non-zero value smaller than those of both the fourth value and the fifth value, while causing the light emitting element to output the laser light [col. 8, lines 7-17. Note recording current levels include positive, negative, and near-zero. This results in a ternary vale set, as shown in fig. 2, item 210]
Regarding claim 2, Gilbert further teaches:
wherein the processing circuit supplies, in the third write operation, to the write element a recording current having a preset sign of either positive or negative sign and an amplitude of the sixth value [col. 8, lines 7-17. Note recording current levels include positive, negative, and near-zero. This results in a ternary vale set, as shown in fig. 2, item 210]
Claims 15-16 are substantially similar to claims 1-2 and are rejected using the same citations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-14 and 17-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 3-4, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the processing circuit changes output of the laser light in the third write operation depending on a number of consecutive unit recording regions in which the third value is to be written, the consecutive unit recording regions including the first unit recording region.
Regarding claims 5-6, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the processing circuit changes output of the laser light in the third write operation depending on a number of consecutive unit recording regions that is in a same state as a state of the first unit recording region among the first state, the second state, and the third state immediately before the third write operation, the consecutive unit recording regions including the first unit recording region.”
Regarding claim 7, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the processing circuit sets the amplitude of the recording current to the sixth value at timing earlier than timing at which the write element reaches the first unit recording region when executing the third write operation on the first unit recording region immediately after executing the first write operation or the second write operation on a second unit recording region, and the second unit recording region is a unit recording region through which the magnetic head passes immediately before the first unit recording region among the plurality of unit recording regions.”
Regarding claims 8-12, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the recording current having the amplitude of the sixth value supplied to the write element in the third write operation includes a plurality of recording currents of seventh values.”
Regarding claims 13-14, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the recording current supplied to the write element in the third write operation includes a positive recording current, a negative recording current, and a zero-recording current.”
Regarding claim 17, the prior art does not teach “…further comprising changing output of the laser light in the third write operation depending on a number of consecutive unit recording regions in which the third value is to be written, the consecutive unit recording regions including the first unit recording region.
Regarding claims 18-20, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the recording current having the amplitude of the sixth value supplied to the write element in the third write operation includes a plurality of recording currents of seventh values.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Mohl [10,803,896], Dina et. al. [2013/0308222], Hassel et. al. [9,111,578] and Liu et. al. [2017/0236534.
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/ANDREW SASINOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
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