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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-5 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (CN 107484054, IDS 8/28/24, see English translation) and Kim (US 20170195768, IDS 9/10/24)
Regarding claim 1, Li teaches a speaker device (bone conduction earphone, pg 1), comprising: a first housing (first housing, abstract, pg 1), a second housing (second housing, abstract) and an ear hook connecting the first housing with the second housing (connection member of connection first housing and the second housing, abstract pg 1), wherein the ear hook includes a wire (second wire group 124, pg 16), a wiring channel and a protective sleeve disposed around the wiring channel (second resilient coating, pg 16), the wire extending from the first housing to the second housing via the wiring channel (fig 2).
Although Li does not explicitly disclosed that the wiring channel has a radial size that allows the wire to move along the wiring channel, the wiring channel does appear to have adequate radial size as shown in figure 2 of Li. Kim teaches a sound device wherein a body is curved between two earpieces and the radial size of the connecting body allows the wire to move within the curved body (Kim, figs 3 and 5) and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to make the connecting part a sufficient size to allow wire movement since doing so is the use of a known technique to improve a similar system in the same way.
Regarding claim 2, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 1, wherein the ear hook further includes an elastic metal wire and the protective sleeve is injection molded around a periphery of the elastic metal wire (Li, fig 2).
Regarding claim 3, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 2, wherein the ear hook includes a first plug end (123, fig 9) and a second plug end (123, fig 9) respectively disposed at two ends of the elastic metal wire (122, fig 9), the first plug end is at least partially inserted into the first housing, and the second plug end is at least partially inserted into the second housing (figs 2 and 10).
Regarding claim 4, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 3, wherein the first housing is disposed with a first socket, and the first plug end is connected to the first socket in a plug manner (jointing holes 1111, pg 15, figs 9 and 10; plug division 123, pg 14).
Regarding claim 5, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 3, wherein the second housing is disposed with a second socket, and the second plug end is connected to the second socket via a fixing member (plug division 123 is securely fixed in first housing 111, pg 15; although first housing can alternately be considered as the claimed second housing).
Regarding claim 8, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 2, wherein the ear hook includes at least one fixing sleeve configured to fix the wire on the elastic metal wire (second resilient coating 122, fig 13, pg 16).
Regarding claim 9, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 8, wherein the ear hook includes at least two fixing sleeves spaced apart along the elastic metal wire (121 and 124, fig 13).
Regarding claim 10, Li and Kim teach the speaker device of claim 1, wherein the protective sleeve at least partially covers the first housing or the second housing (111, fig 2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-7, and 11-20 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.
Conclusion
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/KILE O BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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