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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Japan on 04/28/2022. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the JP2022-074284 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
Figure 1 is objected to because shown components are not clearly identified in the figure. Elements critical to the understanding of the invention should also be identified via written legend (See 37 CFR 1.84 (o)). Such a legend may, for example, be a table placed alongside the drawings as presented, identifying elements by name and number (e.g. “23 – Permanent Magnet”).
New corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in this application. Applicant is advised to employ the services of a competent patent draftsperson outside the Office, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office no longer prepares new drawings. The corrected drawings are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The requirement for corrected drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1-2, 6, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konuma, Japanese Patent Publication No JP 2010010791 A (provided by applicant), in view of Yamamuro, US Patent No. 3,867,587.
Regarding claim 1, Konuma discloses an electroacoustic transducer (A speaker device, ¶[0001], line 1) comprising:
a diaphragm (¶[0043], line 2) to which a voice coil is connected (¶[0043], lines 2-3); and
a magnetic circuit (¶[0043], line 1) part that forms a magnetic gap (¶[0043], line 1) which is a space in which the voice coil vibrates (The voice coil is fitted to the magnetic gap of the magnetic circuit…..¶[0043], line 1), wherein the magnetic circuit part includes:
a permanent magnet (Shown in Fig. 1, magnet (21).....¶[0027], line 2) that is magnetized in a thickness direction (All magnets are magnetized in some thickness direction. This one is magnetized along axis SD of Fig. 1.....¶[0028], lines 3-4),
a pole piece (Fig. 1, (22)) that is magnetically connected (The pole piece is a ferromagnetic material attached to the permanent magnet, and is therefore magnetically connected.....¶[0029], lines 1-2) to one surface of the permanent magnet in the thickness direction (Shown in Fig. 1, pole piece (22) is connected to magnet (21) at the top surface along axis SD), and
a yoke body (Fig. 1, (23).....¶[0037], line 1) that includes
i) a bottom surface part (Bottom surface part (231).....¶[0037], line 3) on which the permanent magnet is disposed (The magnet (21) is provided to the yoke (23).....¶[0037], lines 2-3) and
ii) a peripheral wall part (Peripheral side portion (232).....¶[0037], line 4) extending from a peripheral edge of the bottom surface part in a direction away from the bottom surface part (Shown in Fig. 1B, detailed in ¶[0037], lines 5-6),
with the bottom surface part being magnetically connected (The yoke piece is a magnetic material and therefore connects to the permanent magnet magnetically.....¶[0037], lines 1-2) to the other surface of the permanent magnet in the thickness direction (Shown in Fig. 1(B), the top of the bottom surface part (231) is connected to the bottom of the permanent magnet (21) along the same axis as the pole piece), and
the pole piece is a stacked component (The pole piece is made of four stacked plates (221, 222, 223, 224).....¶[0030], lines 1-2) in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are stacked in the thickness direction of the permanent magnet (Shown in Fig. 1, plates are stacked along axis SD).
Konuma fails to disclose wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other.
Yamamuro teaches a transducer wherein an analogous pole piece is a stacked component (Fig. 3, symbol 7, Col. 2, lines 24-27) in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other (The magnetic layers are separated by electrically insulating layers…..Col. 2, lines 64-67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the transducer of Konuma to incorporate the teachings of Yamamuro, and provide wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other. This would provide the benefit of a more electrically efficient transducer by decreasing power loss from eddy currents (Yamamuro, Col. 2, lines 66-67).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 1.
Konuma additionally teaches a ring yoke (Shown in Fig. 1(B), top plate (24).....¶[0037], line 7) that is disposed around the periphery of the pole piece (Visible in Fig. 1(B)), is magnetically (The top plate is a ferromagnetic material.....¶[0037], lines 7-8) connected to the yoke body (The top plate is provided to the upper end of the yoke body.....¶[0037], lines 7-8), and forms the magnetic gap with the pole piece (Shown in Fig. 1(B), the magnetic gap (MG1) is between the ring yoke (24) and pole piece (22)), wherein the ring yoke is a stacked component in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are stacked in a thickness direction of the permanent magnet (Shown in Fig. 11, the ring yoke may be embodied as a stacked plurality of magnetic metal plates.....¶[0075], lines 3-4, ¶[0053], lines 4-5).
Konuma fails to teach wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other.
Yamamuro teaches wherein an analogous ring piece is a stacked component (Fig. 3, symbol 4, Col. 2, lines 24-27) in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other (The magnetic layers are separated by electrically insulating layers…..Col. 2, lines 64-67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro to further incorporate the teachings of Yamamuro, and provide wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other. This would provide the benefit of a more electrically efficient transducer by decreasing power loss from eddy currents (Yamamuro, Col. 2, lines 66-67).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 1.
Yamamuro additionally teaches wherein the magnetic metal plates of the stacked component are electrically insulated from each other by bonding adjacent magnetic metal plates with an adhesive (Adhesive paste layers….Col. 3, line 8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro to further incorporate the teachings of Yamamuro, and provide wherein the magnetic metal plates of the stacked component are electrically insulated from each other by bonding adjacent magnetic metal plates with an adhesive. Such modification would provide the benefit of a more electrically efficient transducer by decreasing power loss from eddy currents due to the non-conductive nature of the paste (Yamamuro, Col. 2, lines 66-67).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 2.
Konuma additionally teaches wherein the number of layers of the magnetic metal plates constituting the pole piece and the number of layers of the magnetic metal plates constituting the ring yoke are the same (Shown in Fig. 11, the number of layers of each piece are the same), and a thickness of each magnetic metal plate of the pole piece (¶[0032], lines 7-9) and a thickness of each magnetic metal plate of the ring yoke (¶[0056], lines 8-10) are the same.
Claims 3, 4, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konuma in view of Yamamuro in further view of Newlove et al (hereinafter Newlove), US-PG-PUB No. 2015/0373458.
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 1.
Konuma additionally teaches a concave part to which the bottom surface part is securely attached is formed in the peripheral wall part (Shown in Fig. 15, the extremities of the lower plate (238N) fit within a recession (concave part) of peripheral wall (23N).....¶[0085], lines 10-11), and the concave part includes:
a receiving surface for receiving one surface of the bottom surface part, and an inner peripheral surface for supporting an outer peripheral surface of the stacked component of the bottom surface part (Shown in Fig. 15, the concave part receives the bottom surface part, connecting to the edge of the top surface as well as the outer peripheral edge).
This further combination fails to teach wherein the bottom surface part is a stacked component.
Newlove teaches an electroacoustic transducer wherein a bottom surface part (Shown in Fig. 4, a cup-shaped pole piece (6), equivalent to the yoke body of Konuma.....¶[0044], lines 6-14) is a stacked component (¶[0049], lines 1-5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro to incorporate the teachings of Newlove, and provide wherein the bottom surface part is a stacked component. This would provide the benefit of a transducer which better contains magnetic field leakage from a rear surface (Newlove, ¶[0012], lines 11-13).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Konuma, Yamamuro, and Newlove, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 3.
Konuma additionally teaches wherein a depth of the concave part is the same as the thickness of the bottom surface part (Shown in Fig. 15, the concave part fits flush to the bottom surface part, indicating a same thickness).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 1.
Konuma additionally teaches wherein the permanent magnet has a cylindrical shape (The magnetic gap and pole piece are of a circular shape, clearly directing the embodiment towards wherein the permanent magnet is also a circular shape.....¶[0038], lines 2-3), the pole piece is a stacked component (The pole piece is made of four stacked plates (221, 222, 223, 224).....¶[0030], lines 1-2) in which a plurality of the magnetic metal plates (The pole piece is formed of a ferromagnetic material.....¶[0029], line 1) having circular shapes (Shown in Fig. 2A, the pole piece (22) is circular) are stacked, the bottom surface part of the yoke body is a magnetic metal plate (The yoke piece is a magnetic material.....¶[0037], lines 1-2) having a circular shape (Cylindrical (circular) outer periphery.....¶[0085], lines 7-8), and the stacked component of the pole piece and the bottom surface part of the yoke body are both formed to have a diameter larger than a diameter of the permanent magnet (Shown in Fig. 1B, all plates of pole piece (22) and the bottom plate (23) extend past the diameter of the permanent magnet (21)).
This further combination fails to teach wherein the bottom surface part of the yoke body is also a stacked component in which a plurality of a magnetic metal plates are stacked.
Newlove teaches an electroacoustic transducer wherein a bottom surface part of a yoke body (Shown in Fig. 4, a cup-shaped pole piece (6), equivalent to the yoke body of Konuma.....¶[0044], lines 6-14) is a stacked component in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are stacked (The plates are ferromagnetic steel…..¶[0049], lines 1-5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro to incorporate the teachings of Newlove, and provide wherein the bottom surface part of the yoke body is also a stacked component in which a plurality of a magnetic metal plates are stacked. This would provide the benefit of a transducer which better contains magnetic field leakage from a rear surface (Newlove, ¶[0012], lines 11-13).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konuma in view of Yamamuro in further view of Newlove and Babb, US-PG-PUB No. 2012/0207339.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro, as explained above, teach the electroacoustic transducer according to claim 1, but fail to teach wherein both the bottom surface part and the peripheral wall part are stacked components.
Newlove teaches an electroacoustic transducer wherein a bottom surface part of a yoke body (Shown in Fig. 4, a cup-shaped pole piece (6), equivalent to the yoke body of Konuma.....¶[0044], lines 6-14) is a stacked component in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates (The plates are ferromagnetic steel…..¶[0049], lines 1-5) are stacked in the thickness direction of a permanent magnet (¶[0044], lines 4-6), in the peripheral wall part (The bottom surface provides a base from which the peripheral wall part extends).
Babb teaches an electroacoustic transducer wherein the peripheral wall part is a stacked component in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are stacked (Stacked steel annular rings.....¶[0028], lines 3-5), and the plurality of the magnetic metal plates are stacked in the thickness direction of the permanent magnet (Shown in Fig. 1, rings (46) are stacked in the same thickness direction as permanent magnet (36).....¶[0027], line 7), in the peripheral wall part (The stacked rings (46) make up the peripheral wall part).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Konuma and Yamamuro to incorporate the teachings of Newlove and Babb, and provide wherein the bottom surface part of the yoke body and the peripheral wall part are stacked components in which a plurality of a magnetic metal plates are stacked in the thickness direction of the permanent magnet, in the peripheral wall part. This would provide the benefit of a transducer which better limit magnetic field leakage from a rear surface (Newlove, ¶[0012], lines 11-13 and Babb, ¶[0014]).
This further combination fails to teach wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other.
Yamamuro teaches wherein an analogous ring piece is a stacked component (Fig. 3, symbol 4, Col. 2, lines 24-27) in which a plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other (The magnetic layers are separated by electrically insulating layers…..Col. 2, lines 64-67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Konuma, Yamamuro, Newlove, and Babb to further incorporate the teachings of Yamamuro, and provide wherein the plurality of magnetic metal plates are electrically insulated from each other. This would provide the benefit of a more electrically efficient transducer by decreasing power loss from eddy currents (Yamamuro, Col. 2, lines 66-67).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hunstable, US-PG-PUB No. 2016/0112805 teaches a transducer with stacked peripheral rings.
Zhang, US-PG-PUB No. 2012/0163651 teaches a transducer with a stacked pole piece.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEAN M RINEHART whose telephone number is (571)272-2778. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fan Tsang can be reached on (571) 272-7547. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SEAN M RINEHART/Examiner, Art Unit 2694
/FAN S TSANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2694