Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . See 35 U.S.C. § 100 (note).
Art Rejections
Obviousness
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.
Claims 1 and 5–10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of US Patent Application Publication 2020/0213766 (published 02 July 2020) (“Chen”); US Patent Application Publication 2023/0328446 (published 12 October 2023) (“Yang”); and US Patent Application Publication 2022/0248141 (published 04 August 2022) (“Yang II”).
Claims 2–4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Chen; Yang; Yang II and US Patent Application Publication 2025/0159399 (effectively filed 30 December 2022) (“Zhang”).
Claim 1 is drawn to “a speaker.” The following table illustrates the correspondence between the claimed speaker and the Chen reference.
Claim 1
The Chen Reference
“1. A speaker, comprising:
The Chen reference similarly describes a speaker 100. Chen at Abs., ¶¶ 1, 13, FIG.1.
“a frame with a receiving cavity, a vibration system contained in the receiving cavity…and a magnetic circuit system contained in the receiving cavity,
Speaker 100 includes a frame 10 that includes a cavity to receive vibrating system 50 and magnetic circuit system 30. Id. at ¶¶ 13–15, FIGs.1, 2.
“[the vibration system] comprising a diaphragm assembly and a voice coil,
Vibrating system 50 includes a diaphragm assembly that includes suspension ring 51 and dome 53, as well as a voice coil 55. Id.
“wherein the voice coil comprises a coil body and a lead wire extending from the coil body,
Voice coil 55 is depicted with a coil body. Id. at FIGs.2, 4. One of ordinary skill would have also understood that because it is a wound coil, voice coil 55 includes lead wires extending from the body.
“the diaphragm assembly comprises a main body and an avoiding part formed by bending from the main body and in a direction far away from the voice coil,
Chen’s vibrating system 50 includes a main body formed by elements 51 and 53. Id. at ¶¶ 17–21, 26, FIGs.3–6. Vibrating system 50 further includes convex parts 5333 corresponding to the claimed avoiding parts. Id. Convex parts 5333 differ from the claimed avoiding parts because they bend from main body 53 in a direction towards voice coil 55. See id.
“the coil body is bonded with the main body and forms an avoiding space together with the avoiding part,
Voice coil 55 is glued to convex parts 5333 rather than being glued to main body 51, 53. Id. However, the arrangement of voice coil 55 with respect to convex parts 5333 and main body 51, 53 forms leakage passages 102 that correspond to the claimed avoiding space. Id.
“the lead wire passes through the avoiding space to electrically connect with an external power supply.”
Chen does not describe voice coil 55 in detail. One of ordinary skill would have understood that voice coil 55 must electrically connect to an external power supply in order to drive speaker 10. See id. at ¶ 15. However, the Chen reference does not describe passing a voice coil’s lead wires through the avoiding spaces in order to make that electrical connection.
Table 1
The table above shows that the Chen reference describes a speaker that corresponds closely to the claimed speaker. The Chen reference does not anticipate the claimed passage of a voice coil lead wire through an avoiding space to electrically connect with an external power supply. The Chen reference also does not anticipate forming avoiding parts that bend from a main body away from a voice coil and bonding a voice coil body to a main body.
The differences between the claimed invention and the Chen reference are such that the invention as a whole would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time this Application was effectively filed. Chen describes a voice coil 55. The Chen reference does not describe the structure of voice coil 55 in detail, excluding descriptions of its lead wire and how the lead wire would be routed in order to make an electrical connection with an external power supply.
The Chen reference further describes adding protrusions 5333/5333’ on a diaphragm’s main body 51, 53 to create leakage passages 102/102’ that allow for pressure equalization between the spaces inside and outside the perimeter of voice coil 55. Chen at ¶¶ 17–21, 26, FIGs.3–6. Chen does not use leakage passages 102 to route voice coil 55’s lead wires. Chen also presents an inverted version of the claimed diaphragm. Rather than forming avoiding parts that bend from a main body in a direction away from a voice coil, Chen forms protrusions 5333 that bend towards a voice coil. And because of this choice, Chen bonds voice coil 55 to protrusions 5333 rather than to main body 51, 53.
The Yang reference, like Chen, describes a sounding device, or speaker. Yang at ¶¶ 14, 27, FIGs.2, 5. And like Chen’s protrusions 5333, Yang describes a diaphragm dome 1112 with protruded platforms 1112a that avoid a voice coil’s lead wires. Id.
Read in light of Chen, the Yang reference’s teachings of lead wire avoidance regions near the position in which the voice coil connects with a diaphragm would have reasonably suggested that Chen’s intervals 101 would similarly provide an avoiding space that would admit passage of a voice coil’s lead wire. This would have reasonably suggested modifying Chen’s loudspeaker by positioning lead wires near intervals 101 so that the lead wires would pass through the intervals in order to electrically connect with an external power source.
Further, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that it is common to form diaphragms with protruded portions and that those protrusions may be extended either towards or away from a voice coil. See Yang II at FIGs.14, 15 (depicting two dome embodiments with protrusions extending in different directions). In light of these teachings, one of ordinary skill would have reasonably modified Chen’s diaphragm so protrusions 5333 extend away from voice coil 55 and so voice coil 55 is fixed to main body 51, 53 with leakage passages 102 being positioned coincident with protrusions 5333. See MPEP § 2144.04(VI) (discussing various cases supporting the obviousness of merely reversing or rearranging parts). One of ordinary skill would have also resized the protrusions to create a passage that enables Chen’s described function of equalizing air pressure between the inner region of voice coil 55 and the outer region of voice coil 55 as well as the obvious idea of using Chen’s leakage passages 102 for routing of a voice coil lead wire. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 2 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein an amount of the avoiding parts is two,
“each avoiding part forms a corresponding avoiding space together with the coil body,
“the lead wire comprises a first wire and a second wire,
“the first wire and the second wire each passes through a corresponding avoiding space,
“one of the first wire and the second wire is used for electrically connecting with a positive pole of the external power supply, and
“the other is used for electrically connecting with a negative pole of the external power supply.”
The obviousness rejection of claim 1, incorporated herein, shows the obviousness of modifying Chen’s speaker so that diaphragm 55 includes protrusions 5333/5333’ bent from main body 51, 53 away from voice coil 55 rather than towards voice coil 55. The rejection also shows the obviousness of using the resulting leakage passages 102 to pass the voice coil’s lead wires. One of ordinary skill would have implemented voice coil 55 with two lead wires in order to close a circuit by making electrical connection with both a positive and negative contact. See Zhang at FIG.19 (depicting voice coil 1126 with two lead wires 11262). Since Chen includes four leakage passages 102 on opposite sides of voice coil 55, one of ordinary skill would have reasonably used two as avoiding parts, each passage routing one lead wire on opposite sides of coil 55. See id. (depicting two lead wires 11262 on opposite sides of a voice coil); Chen at FIG.3 (depicting leakage passages 102 at four corners). For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang, the Yang II and the Zhang references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 3 depends on claim 2, and further requires the following:
“wherein the two avoiding parts are arranged symmetrically with respect to a center point of the main body.”
The obviousness rejection of claim 2, incorporated herein, shows the obviousness of using two of Chen’s leakage passages 102 as avoidance spaces for two voice coil lead wires located on opposite sides of voice coil 55. The Zhang reference suggests locating voice coil lead wires symmetrically about a center point of a speaker. See Zhang at FIG.19 (depicting the symmetric position of two voice coil lead wires). The Chen reference similarly symmetrically arranges passages 102 about a center point of a speaker. Chen at FIG.3 (depicting symmetrically located leakage passages 102). Thus, one of ordinary skill would have reasonably considered using symmetrically located passages 102 for the symmetrically arranged lead wires. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang, the Yang II and the Zhang references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 4 depends on claim 3, and further requires the following:
“wherein the coil body comprises two first edges opposite to each other and two second edges connecting the two first edges, an edge length of the two first edges is greater than that of the two second edges, each avoiding part is arranged at a corresponding position of the main body corresponding to a junction of the adjacent first edge and second edge.”
Similarly, Chen’s voice coil 55 is formed with two short parallel edges and two parallel long edges that are joined to create a rectangle with rounded corners. Chen at FIG.2. Chen’s leakage passages 102 correspond to the corners, or junctions between first and second edges. Id. at FIGs.2, 3, 5. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang, the Yang II and the Zhang references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 5 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the avoiding part comprises a side wall extending from the main body and in the direction far away from the voice coil, and an end wall disposed at an end of the side wall far away from the voice coil, an orthographic projection of the end wall to the voice coil comprises a part located at an inner side of the voice coil and another part located at an outer side of the voice coil.”
According to the obviousness rejection of claim 1, incorporated herein, Chen’s convex parts 5333 would be formed with sidewalls 53333 that extend away from voice coil 55 such that an end wall 53331 is disposed at an end of sidewalls 53333 and away from voice coil 55. One of ordinary skill would have reasonably sized convex parts 5333 to be larger in width than the width of voice coil 55 in order to form leakage passages 102. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 6 depends on claim 5, and further requires the following:
“wherein an area of the part of the orthographic projection located at the inner side of the voice coil is greater than that of the another part of the orthographic projection located at the outer side of the voice coil.”
The position of convex parts 5333 relative to voice coil 55 would be a matter of a design choice that optimizes the designer’s goals of routing a voice coil lead wire and controlling airflow between the inner and outer regions of voice coil 55. See Chen at ¶¶ 3, 20. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would have conducted routine experimentation with the size of convex parts 5333 relative to voice coil 55 and the relative position of convex parts 5333 relative to voice coil 55. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 7 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the main body comprises a diaphragm fixed to the frame and a dome attached to the diaphragm, the avoiding part is formed on the dome.”
Chen likewise describes suspension ring 51 corresponding to the claimed diaphragm since it fixes dome 53 to frame 10. Chen at ¶ 15, FIGs.1, 2. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 8 depends on claim 7, and further requires the following:
“wherein the dome is bonded with the diaphragm.”
Chen describes bonding dome 53 to suspension ring 51. Chen at ¶ 15, FIGs.1, 2. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 9 depends on claim 8, and further requires the following:
“wherein the diaphragm comprises a suspension in a ring shape, a first end portion extending from an inner edge of the suspension, and a second end portion extending from an outer edge of the suspension,
“at least part of the first end portion overlaps with the dome in a vibration direction of the diaphragm assembly and is bonded with the dome.”
Chen describes suspension ring 51 as being in a ring shape with a first end extending from an inner edge of the suspension and a second end portion extending from an outer edge of the suspension. Chen at ¶ 15, FIGs.1, 2. The first end portion overlaps with and is fixed to dome 53. Id. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 10 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“An electronic device, comprising the speaker as described in claim 1.”
Chen describes using speaker 10 in an electronic device, such as a mobile phone. Chen at ¶ 2. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Chen, the Yang and the Yang II references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Summary
Claims 1–10 are rejected under at least one of 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103 as being unpatentable over the cited prior art. 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.
Conclusion
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/Walter F Briney III/
Walter F Briney IIIPrimary ExaminerArt Unit 2692
12/3/2025