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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1, 2, 3, and 9-13 in the reply filed on 07/23/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 4-8 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 07/23/2026.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cox III (US 2014/0,128,132; hereinafter Cox) in view of Yang (KR 2019/0,001,823).
Regarding claim 1, Cox disclose a smartphone recorder (article/device, e.g. digital voice recorder, reversibly secured/attached to back face of mobile device case; paras. [0008], [0041]) comprising:
a casing body (casing of reversibly attached article/device 340; Fig. 3; ¶ [0043]) including:
a front cover (302) attachable to and detachable from a rear surface (304) of a smartphone (300) (Fig. 3; ¶ [0047]); and
a rear casing (rear casing of device 340) coupled to a rear surface of the front cover (302) and having a receiving space defined therein (paras. [0043]-[0044]);
a magnet (350) for attaching the front cover (302) to the rear surface of the smartphone using a magnetic force (front cover 302 is shown as reversibly detachable to rear surface 304 of smartphone 300 using a set of magnets 350; ¶ [0047]); an input unit (inherent microphone unit of a digital voice recorder) for receiving voice information during a call of the smartphone
(¶ [0041]); and a recording unit for recording the voice information input to the input unit (inherent recording unit in a digital voice recorder; ¶ [0041]).
Cox do not explicitly disclose an input unit for receiving voice information during a call of the smartphone; and a recording unit for recording the voice information input to the input unit. In the same field of endeavor, Yang disclose an input unit (11, 23) for receiving voice information during a call of the smartphone (10); and a recording unit (20) for recording the voice information input to the input unit (11, 23) (paragraphs [0029]-[0030], [0036]; Figs. 1-3). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to obtain voice from the smartphone user and to store it in the recorder of the digital voice recorder of Cox for quick and efficient storage and retrieval by the smartphone user at a later time.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cox (US 2014/0,128,132) in view of Yang et al (KR 2019/0,001,823; hereinafter Yang) further in view of Kang (KR 2020/0,081,016).
Regarding claim 2, Cox and Yang disclose the smartphone recorder of claim 1, wherein the input unit (23; Fig. 6) includes at least one of: a microphone (11, 23; Yang, Fig. 6) for receiving the voice information (digital voice recorder has an inherent microphone, Cox,
¶ [0041]; Yang, ¶ [0029], Fig. 6). Cox and Yang do not disclose a piezoelectric sensor configured to receive the voice information as vibration data. In the same field of endeavor, Kang disclose a piezoelectric sensor (150) configured to receive the voice information as vibration data (paras. [0014]-[0015], [0051]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to have a unit for detecting vibration or voice information according to the pattern of the vibration or sound detection signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 9-13 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.
Regarding claim 3, Cox, Yang, and Kang disclose the smartphone recorder of claim 2, wherein the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the piezoelectric sensor is configured to receive the voice information transferred through the rear surface of the smartphone during the call as the vibration data when the front cover is attached to the rear surface of the smartphone, wherein the recording unit is configured to receive the vibration data input from the piezoelectric sensor, to convert the vibration data into voice data, and to collect the converted voice data.
Regarding claim 9, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the smartphone recorder of claim 3, wherein the recording unit includes: a circuit board located in the receiving space and configured to collect the vibration data input to the piezoelectric sensor and to convert the vibration data into the voice data; a switch electrically connected to the circuit board and configured to turn on/off a recording operation; a communication terminal electrically connected to the circuit board; and data storage for storing therein the voice data converted by the circuit board.
Regarding claim 10, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the smartphone recorder of claim 9, wherein the smartphone recorder further comprises a battery located in the receiving space and configured to supply power to the recording unit and the piezoelectric sensor.
Regarding claim 11, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest smartphone recorder of claim 9, wherein the smartphone recorder further comprises a feedback unit electrically connected to the circuit board and configured to provide feedback about a recording operation and a charged state of the battery.
Regarding claim 12, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest smartphone recorder of claim 11, wherein the communication terminal is positioned at a center of a lower end of the rear casing, wherein the feedback unit is spaced from the communication terminal from a predefined spacing and is exposed to an outside.
Regarding claim 13, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the smartphone recorder of claim 9, wherein the switch moves in a sliding manner in a predefined direction to turn on/off the recording operation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
- Xue et al (US 2024/0,040,024) disclose an electronic device and a sound recording method for the electronic device having a microphone module disposed on an upper side of a movable support to ensure the sound recording effect of the microphone module
- Tajiri et al (US 2019/0,082,255) disclose an information acquiring apparatus that functions as a recording apparatus, such as a digital voice recorder that receives voices through, e.g., a microphone, and records audio data, or a mobile phone that receives voices through, e.g., a microphone, and records audio data.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LANA N LE whose telephone number is (571) 272-7891. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-5:00pm.
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/LANA N LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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