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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on March 16, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 filed March 16, 2026 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 7, 9-11, 13, 15 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara (US 2007/0017349) in view of Leopardi et al. (US 2017/0346581).
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Uehara discloses a communication device (Figures 1, 2 and paragraph 47, controller 1j) and a communication establishment method in which communication is established in a communication device, the communication device and the communication establishment method comprising:
a hardware processor (Figure 2, CPU 10) configured to:
acquire a connection instruction from a user (Paragraph 69, the user instructs the controller 1j to produce the visual image of QR code 8); and
establish a first communication being a direct communication with a terminal without connecting to the internet in response to acquisition of the connection instruction (Paragraph 77, PDA 2 establishes wireless channel 30d with control 1j; Paragraph 43, PDA 2 and controller 1j establish channel 30d using QR code produced by controller 1j per instruction from the user or PDA 2; Paragraph 5, terminal device directly communicating with electronic system of the musical instrument through a radio channel; Although Uehara does not state “without connecting to the Internet”, QR code pairing is well known in the art as technology that does not require Internet connection for pairing between devices).
Uehara do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Leopardi et al.: receive connection information for connecting to a server (Leopardi et al., Figures 1 and 12, audio hub 102) from the terminal via the first communication (Leopardi et al., Paragraph 91, [connection between dongle 104 and audio hub 102 via software application 112 running on mobile device 110] each user logs-in to his/her account via the software application 112 running on his/her respective mobile device 110. Each user may connect his/her musical instrument 106 to the audio hub 102, via a wired connection (see, for example, FIG. 10) or via a wireless connection (see, for example, FIG. 12) by connecting the dongle 104 to the musical instrument 106. Each user may couple his/her audio playback device 108 to the audio hub 102 via a wired connection or a wireless connection over a Bluetooth network or a Wi-fi network, for example); and establish a second communication being communication with the server (Leopardi et al., Figures 1 and 12, audio hub 102) by using the received connection information (Leopardi et al., Paragraph 91, [connection between dongle 104 and audio hub 102 via software application 112 running on mobile device 110] each user logs-in to his/her account via the software application 112 running on his/her respective mobile device 110. Each user may connect his/her musical instrument 106 to the audio hub 102, via a wired connection (see, for example, FIG. 10) or via a wireless connection (see, for example, FIG. 12) by connecting the dongle 104 to the musical instrument 106. Each user may couple his/her audio playback device 108 to the audio hub 102 via a wired connection or a wireless connection over a Bluetooth network or a Wi-fi network, for example).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Uehara with the cited disclosure from Leopardi et al. in order to provide a system in which users can independently modify audio characteristics of their own channel without modifying audio characteristics of other participants (Leopardi et al., Paragraph 52).
Regarding claim 7, Uehara and Leopardi et al. disclose wherein the communication device is mounted on an electronic device (Uehara, Figure 1, controller 1j mounted on piano 1; Leopardi et al., Figures 1 and 12, dongle 104 connected to musical instrument 106).
Regarding claim 9, Uehara and Leopardi et al. disclose a duplexer, integrating the first communication with the second communication (Uehara, Figure 1 and paragraph 51, wireless LAN card 4; Figure 3, communication interfaces 15; Figure 15 and paragraph 75, RF Tx/Rx transceiver 1500, the dongle 104 including two transceivers 1500, one for Wi-Fi and one for Bluetooth).
Regarding claim 10, Leopardi et al. disclose wherein the first communication is communication using Bluetooth; the second communication is communication using Wi-Fi (Paragraph 75, communication with audio hub 102 [server] may be Wi-Fi or Bluetooth; Paragraph 91, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth).
Regarding claims 11 and 19, Uehara and Leopardi et al. disclose wherein the communication device is configured to be able to communicate with an electronic device by a third communication by wired connection (Uehara, Figure 1 and paragraph 47, The controller 1j is hung from the key bed, and is electrically connected to the solenoid-operated key actuators 1k, key sensors 1m and an electric motor of the hammer stopper 1n; Leopardi et al., Figures 1 and 12, dongle 104 connected to musical instrument 106; Paragraph 76, The dongle 104 is configured to couple to the musical instrument 106. In one embodiment, the dongle 104 includes a MOLEX connector 1502. In order to connect the dongle 104 to various musical instrument audio output ports (e.g., ¼″ audio jack, etc.), various MOLEX adapters 1600 (see FIG. 16) may be provided that are configured to plug-in to different types of audio output ports).
Regarding claim 13, Leopardi et al. disclose wherein data input from the electronic device to the communication device via the third communication is transmitted to an external device via the first communication or the second communication (Paragraph 74, Accordingly, via the dongle 104, the audio signals from the musical instruments 106 can be transmitted wirelessly, over the network 1004. In some embodiments, the audio signals from the musical instruments 106 may be transmitted over, for example, a Bluetooth network and/or a Wi-fi network, to the audio hub 102); data received by the communication device from the external device via the first communication or the second communication is input to the electronic device via the third communication (Figure 15 and paragraph 75, dongle 104 includes RF transceiver to transmit and receive data).
Claim(s) 2 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, and further in view of Benson et al. (US 2015/0257008).
Regarding claims 2 and 16, Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. disclose the claimed invention above but do not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Benson et al.: wherein the hardware processor is further configured to disconnect the first communication in response to reception of the connection information from the terminal (Benson et al., Paragraphs 28-29, 109-110, smart object first connects to an initial network access device, smart object requests and receives network connection information for a local network access device, smart object disconnects from the initial network access device after receiving the network connection information for the local network access device, smart object connects to the local network access device using the network connection information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Uehara and Leopardi et al. with the cited disclosure from Benson et al. in order to configure network access parameters for access to the network (Benson et al., Abstract).
Claim(s) 3 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, and further in view of Fujimoto et al. (US 2019/0394278).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. discloses the claimed invention above but does not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Fujimoto et al.: wherein the hardware processor is further configured to store the received connection information (Fujimoto et al., Claims 5 and 14, wherein the specific piece of wireless communication equipment includes a memory that stores server connection information, the server connection information being usable to connect to the server); and in response to power of the communication device being turned on and the connection information being stored, establish the second communication with the server by using the connection information (Fujimoto et al., Claims 5 and 14, the specific piece of wireless communication equipment being configured to automatically connect to the server by using the server connection information when power is turned on).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Uehara and Leopardi et al. with the cited disclosure from Fujimoto et al. to allow automatic connection to the hub of Leopardi et al. when powering on (Fujimoto et al., Claims 5 and 14).
Claim(s) 4-6 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. in view of Fujimoto et al. as applied to claims 3 and 17 above, and further in view of Liu et al. (US 2015/0334548).
Regarding claims 4 and 18, Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. in view of Fujimoto et al. disclose the claimed invention above as well as wherein the communication device is communicably connected to an electronic device (Uehara, Figure 1 and paragraph 47, The controller 1j is hung from the key bed, and is electrically connected to the solenoid-operated key actuators 1k, key sensors 1m and an electric motor of the hammer stopper 1n; Leopardi et al., Figures 1 and 12, dongle 104 connected to musical instrument 106) but do not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Masson et al.: wherein the hardware processor is further configured to: receive from the electronic device an instruction to restart the communication device; and restart the communication device in response to reception of the instruction to restart (Liu et al., Paragraph 35, The enumeration process can start by transmitting a reset signal to the USB device…If it is determined that the USB device is supported by the USB host, then various drivers for communicating with the USB device can be loaded and the USB device can be set to a configured state. In some cases, if the USB host is restarted, then the enumeration process can be repeated for the connected USB device (as well as for other USB devices connected to the USB host).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Uehara, Leopardi et al. and Fujimoto et al. with the cited disclosure from Masson et al. in order to signal restart to connected devices (Liu et al., Paragraph 35).
Regarding claim 5, Uehara and Leopardi et al. disclose wherein the electronic device is an electronic musical instrument (Uehara, Figure 1, piano 1; Leopardi et al., Figure 1, respective musical instruments 106 connected to respective dongle 104); data on the server is timbre data used for sound production by the electronic musical instrument (Leopardi et al., Paragraph 52, he audio hub 102 may be communicatively coupled to each such user device for facilitating wireless transmission of audio signals from the musical instruments 106a-n to corresponding audio playback devices 108a-n so that users can listen to the audio on their own independent channel during a silent rehearsal. In further embodiments, users can independently modify their own channel via a software application (“app”) running on their mobile device 110. Accordingly, users can independently modify audio characteristics of their own audio playback during silent rehearsals, without modifying the audio characteristics of other participants of the silent rehearsal); the terminal is configured to be able to acquire, for the electronic device, the timbre data from the server in response to an instruction from the user (Leopardi et al., Paragraph 10, independently modify the at least one characteristic of the audio signal associated with the corresponding audio channel as a result of a user command wirelessly received via a software application running on a mobile device corresponding to the daughterboard, the mobile device wirelessly communicatively coupled to the audio hub [server]).
Regarding claim 6, Uehara and Leopardi et al. disclose wherein the electronic device is an electronic musical instrument (Uehara, Figure 1, piano 1; Leopardi et al., Figure 1, respective musical instruments 106 connected to respective dongle 104); the electronic musical instrument is provided with timbre data having information about timbre, and a timbre according to selection of the user is acquired from the timbre data and output as a musical tone (Leopardi et al., Figure 1, musical instruments outputting audio; Paragraph 64, each musical instrument 106a-n may be connected directly to each of the plurality of audio input ports 900. In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, each musical instrument 106a-n may be connected to a mixer 1000 and the audio signals routed through the mixer 1000 to the audio hub 102. In one embodiment, each audio input port 900 may be operably configured to receive at least one conductor 1002a-n on which the audio signal from the corresponding musical instrument 106 is transmitted to the audio hub 102).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Shogaki et al. (US 2019/0129372).
Regarding claim 8, Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. disclose the claimed invention above but do not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Shogaki et al.: wherein the communication device is built in an electronic device (Shogaki et al., Figure 11 and paragraph 105, a system configuration in which a data collection module 5B is integral to a servo amplifier 2. In this case, the data collection module 5B is fitted with the servo amplifier 2 in the form of an add-in (expansion) board or a peripheral; Paragraph 106, the data collection module 5C is configured in the form of a “USB dongle” connected to a USB terminal of the servo amplifier 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Uehara and Leopardi et al. with the cited disclosure from Shogaki et al. in order to produce a simplified wiring in the system as a whole and increase speed of data transmission-reception through the inside bus, the shared memory share, and other associated elements (Shogaki et al., Paragraph 105).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. as applied to claim 11 above, and further in view of Redding et al. (US 2015/0040744).
Regarding claim 14, Uehara in view of Leopardi et al. disclose the claimed invention above but do not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Redding et al.: wherein the third communication is communication using USB (Redding et al., Paragraph 49, Both the audio signals generated by the musical instrument 100 and the control signals transmitted by the controller device 104 can be streamed via a hard-wired or wireless connection directly to a Bluetooth host device, such as a powered Bluetooth speaker, Bluetooth headphones, a smart phone 502C, a computer 502A, or a USB Dongle to be played, recorded, monitored, amplified, or further processed, with the recording and processing controlled or modified based on the transmitted control signals).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Uehara and Leopardi et al. with the cited disclosure from Redding et al. in order to provide additional functionality for transmitting audio signals for further processing (Redding et al., Paragraph 49).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 and 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 12 and 20, the prior art does not disclose or adequately suggest that connection information received form the terminal is transmitted to the electronic device by the communication device connected thereto and that the communication device receives the connection information from the electronic device and that the communication device establishes connection with the server using the connection information when powering on.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OTIS L THOMPSON, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1953. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 6:30am - 7:00pm.
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
March 31, 2026
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