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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takei et al. (US 2007/0160253) herein Takei in view of Uemoto et al (US 2013/0180033).
Regarding claim 1, Takei discloses a conversation assistance device utilizing bone conduction (talking device using bone conduction, Takei: [Abstract], Figs. 1-4), the conversation assistance device comprising: a body part (body part 3, Takei: Figs. 1-4); and a vibration device that is connected to the body part (vibration device 5 connected to the body part 3, Takei: Figs. 1-4), wherein the body part includes a microphone, a control unit for controlling the conversation assistance device, an operation panel for operating the conversation assistance device, and a mounting part that can attach and detach a holding member for holding the body part to a user (body part 3 includes microphone 6, circuit for controlling the device, operation panel explicitly implied to power the device on and off, mounting part 4 that can attach and detach a holding member for holding the body part 3 to a user, Takei: [0016], [0018], [0022], Figs. 1-4);the control unit enables the vibration device to vibrate in accordance with audio information received by the microphone (vibration device 5 vibrates in accordance with audio information received by the microphone, Takei: [0017]); in a state in which the holding member is detached from the mounting part, a user can use the conversation assistance device by holding the body part in hand and bringing the vibration device in contact with a person to talk to (in a state where the holding member is detached from the mounting part 4, the user can hold the body part 3 in hand and bring the vibration device in contact with a person to talk to, Takei: Fig. 3b), but lacks in a state in which the holding member is mounted onto the mounting part, the holding member holds the body part on a user's head so that the vibration device can be in contact with a part of the user's head.
Nevertheless, Takei does teach mounting the holding member to a mounting part and abutting the vibration device with a user’s head (holding member being mounted onto mounting part 4, the holding member holds the body part 3 on the user’s head so that the vibration device 5 can be in contact with a part of the user’s head, Takei: Fig. 2b) and it is well known in the art to have a mounting part for a bone conduction device to sit on a user’s head so that the holding member holds the body part of said bone conduction device to a user’s head so that the vibration portion is in contact with a part of the user’s head as seen in Uemoto (detachable bone conduction device 4 is mounted on mount 8, which holds the body part on a user’s head so that vibration device 4 can be in contact with a part of the user’s head, Uemoto: Figs. 1 and 4) in order to securely contact the mastoid for more efficient vibration transfer while allowing a user the option to save energy from having to manually hold the bone conduction device.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Takei and Uemoto discloses wherein the vibration device is coupled to the body part by a coupling part (vibration device 5 is coupled to body part 3 via a coupling part 7, Takei: Figs. 1-4, vibration device 4 is coupled to body part 7 by a coupling part 2, Uemoto: Figs. 1-6); the coupling part is formed of an elastic member (coupling part 7 is elastic in Takei: Fig. 1) and the coupling part includes an adjustment mechanism that can adjust a position and a direction of the vibration device with respect to the body part (coupling part 2 includes an adjustment mechanism that can adjust a position and a direction of the vibration device 4 with respect to the body part 7, Uemoto: Figs. 1-6).
Regarding claim 3, while Takei and Uemoto do not teach wherein the microphone is disposed on one surface of the body part and a part at which the microphone is mounted protrudes more than other parts of said surface of the body part, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to have wherein the microphone is disposed on one surface of the body part and a part at which the microphone is mounted protrudes more than other parts of said surface of the body part, since applicant has not disclosed that such an arrangement solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with microphone placement of Takei and Uemoto.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the microphone of Takei and Uemoto to be disposed on one surface of the body part and a part at which the microphone is mounted protrudes more than other parts of said surface of the body part in order to have less interference from the device body during audio pickup.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Takei and Uemoto discloses wherein the body part is provided with an external input terminal (body part 3 receives external input via wireless signals, explicitly implying an external input terminal, Takei: [Abstract], [0007] and body part 7 has an input terminal as seen via wire 3 connecting to a jack, Uemoto: Figs. 1-6), and audio information received by a device that is connected to the external input terminal can be input (audio information receive by cellphone connected to the external input terminal can be input, Takei: [Abstract], [0007], [0018], audio signal is input via cord 3 from an outside source, Uemoto: [0021]); but lacks wherien the control unit can choose, by means of the operation panel, which audio information is to be transmitted to the vibration device: either the audio information from the device connected to the external input terminal, the audio information obtained by the microphone, or combination of both. Nevertheless, Takei does teach the control unit can receive audio information wirelessly from a cellphone and via its microphone (audio information receive by cellphone connected to the external input terminal can be input, Takei: [Abstract], [0007], [0017], [0018]) and it is well known the art to have an operation panel to allow a user to toggle between audio reception modes. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control unit of Takei and Uemoto to choose , by means of the operation panel, which audio information is to be transmitted to the vibration device: either the audio information from the device connected to the external input terminal, the audio information obtained by the microphone, or combination of both in order to allow a user to toggle between audio reception modes. The Examiner takes Official Notice.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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 SEAN H NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5728. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6 PM.
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/SEAN H NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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