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 .
Claims 1 -16 are allowed.
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.
Claims 17, 18 and 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application No. 2020/0252710 (Bottoni et al.).
With respect to claim 17, claim 17 was rejected in view of Bottoni et al. Here the examiner stated:
“With respect to claims 17, 18 and 31, these limitations relate to placing transducers along a straight line to generate a cylindrical wavefront. Doing such is so notoriously old in the art, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to do such whenever and wherever it was deemed necessary. (in addition, note the rejection below with respect to claim 17)”.
Then claim17 was rejected in view of Kaetel.
Kaetel does not disclose the sound wave having, "a sector of a cylindrical wavefront at 5 - 60mm from the sound source". However, it is well known in the art that cylindrical wavefronts are achieved by placing the converters along a straight line at a certain distance from the source. Kaetel discloses a cylindrical (diameter and depth see paragraph 0035) directional array (see paragraph 0032). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, in view of Kaetel, to layout such an array wherever and whenever it was deemed necessary.
Applicant appears to argue as though the rejection was Bottoni et al. in view of Kaetel. See page 9:
Therefore, independent claim 17 is patentable and allowable over Bottoni in view of Kaetel.
No such rejection was made,
With respect to converters 3a and 3b, applicant appears to suggest that such is a single circular sound wavefront. However, depending on the distance from the source a circular wavefront can become a cylindrical wave front.
With respect to claim 30, Applicant states on page 8 that
“Bottoni does not disclose or teach positioning sound transducers near the ear's tragus such that sound waves propagate towards the back of the head. As discussed above, Bottoni teaches the opposite configuration where the woofer is arranged SO that the low frequency sound beam axis points directly into the ear canal. (Bottoni, paragraph [0065]).”
However, in the same paragraph, 0065, Bottoni teaches that tweeters, which are transducers,
[0065] The tweeter 6 can emit high frequency sound waves along a high frequency sound beam axis 7. As schematically shown in FIGS. 3-6, the high frequency sound beam axis 7 desirably extends from the center of the tweeter 6 in a direction that is normal to the plane in which the tweeter 6 extends. According to the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the woofer 4 is arranged so that the low frequency sound beam axis 5 points directly into the ear canal, and the tweeter 6 is arranged above the ear 2 so that the high frequency sound beam axis 7 is parallel to and vertically above the low frequency sound beam axis 5. The wearer can therefore be given the impression that the sound event was above him/her. Additionally or alternatively, at least one further tweeter 6 can also be arranged below the ear 2. As a result, sound events that have taken place below the ear 2 of the wearer can be localized. Moreover, even more tweeters 6 can be arranged in the loudspeaker assembly 1, of course, in order to depict sound events that have taken place in front of and/or behind the wearer.
In addition, note JP 2017103604 (see Fig 8 and the information pertaining thereto and U.S. 2020/0169800 (see the Abstract and Fig. 4) as relevant examples.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Note the Figs and Abstracts of the references cited on the accompanying 892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Deane whose telephone number is 571-272-7484. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - FRIDAY from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ahmad Matar, can be reached on 571- 272-7488.
The official fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571 -273-8300. However, unofficial faxes can be direct to the examiner's computer at 571 273 -7484.
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11July2026
/WILLIAM J DEANE JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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