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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-3, 23, and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fincham (US 20050129258 A1).
Regarding claim 1: Fincham discloses a sound apparatus (Fig.8: Speaker unit 800), comprising:
a sound generating module (Fig. 8: Speaker 807) including a vibration member (although it is not shown, it is inherent that speaker 807 inherently has a vibration member which is an acoustic diaphragm because an audio speaker must have it in order for it to generate sound) and a vibration apparatus (although it is not shown, it is inherent that speaker 807 inherently has a vibration apparatus/mechanism (examples of such vibration mechanism are voice coils or piezoelectric material for some of the analog audio speakers, actuation mechanism which can vibrate the acoustic diaphragm of a digital speaker such as a MEMS speaker) configured at the vibration member (i.e., the acoustic diaphragm) to vibrate the acoustic diaphragm because an audio speaker must have it in order for it to generate sound);
an enclosure (Fig. 8: Housing 805 reads on the claimed enclosure) connected to the vibration member with an internal space therebetween (see internal space in Fig. 8); and
a connection member connected to the enclosure (Fig. 8: strut 814 and spacer 821 can be considered a connection member which connects the speaker 807 with the enclosure 805),
wherein the connection member comprises a first portion and a second portion (Fig. 8: strut 814 reads on a first portion of the connection member and spacer 821 reads on the second portion of the connection member), the first and second portions of the connection member have different thicknesses from each other (Fig. 8: the strut 814 has a thickness of 10mm which is different from the thickness of the spacer 821 which is 12mm).
Regarding claim 2: Fincham discloses the sound apparatus of claim 1, wherein the thickness of the second portion of the connection member is thicker than the thickness of the first portion of the connection member (Fig. 8: the spacer 821 with the thickness of 12mm is thicker than the strut 814 with the thickness of 10mm).
Regarding claim 3: Fincham discloses the sound apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second portion of the connection member is disposed at a periphery portion of the enclosure, and wherein the first portion of the connection member is disposed at another portion, except the periphery portion, of the enclosure (Fig. 8 and Fig. 9: spacer 821 surrounding speaker 808 at the bottom and the struts 814 are at the side).
Regarding claim 23: Fincham discloses the sound apparatus of claim 1, wherein the enclosure comprises an opening part connected to the internal space (Fig. 8: opening in spacer 812 for placing speaker 807, the opening, speaker 807, and internal space connected).
Regarding claim 32: the sound apparatus discussed in claim 1 above in combination with para [0106] and [0135]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-22, 24-31, and 33-34 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID L TON whose telephone number is (571)270-7839. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM (EST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivian Chin can be reached at (571)272-7848. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID L TON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695