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 . This Office action is based on the communications filed September 4, 2024. Claims 1 – 16 are currently pending and considered below.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 4, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 10 – 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. (US 2025/0054477 A1), hereinafter Oh, in view of Stepanian et al. (US 7,078,359 B2), hereinafter Stepanian.
Claim 1: Oh discloses a housing of a sound production device, wherein at least a part of the housing is a first support housing (see at least, “FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a microspeaker enclosure filled with porous granules according to the related art. According to the related art, the microspeaker 1 is mounted in enclosure cases 2 and 3, and a back volume 4 is formed between the upper and lower enclosure cases 2 and 3,” Oh [0004], “Here, instead of a mold, the enclosure case of the microspeaker may be used as a mold to perform freeze-casting, thereby integrating the sound amplifying block with the enclosure case,” Oh [0054]), and the first support housing comprises a metal frame (see at least, “As another aspect of the embodiment, the first porous material may be one or more materials selected from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolite, activated carbon, and magnesium silicate,” Oh [0013]) and an aerogel material (see at least, “As another aspect of the embodiment, the second porous material may be aerogel,” Oh [0014], “As another aspect of the embodiment, the aerogel
may include one or more of silica aerogel, carbon aerogel, alumina aerogel, and titania aerogel,” Oh [0016]), wherein the metal frame is a porous framework with a pore channel structure, and the aerogel material is distributed on a surface of the metal frame and in the pore channel structure (see at least, “According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of manufacturing a sound amplifying block having a layered structure, including: a first operation of preparing a slurry by mixing a first porous material, which is an air adsorbing material that serves to amplify sound, a second porous material, which is a permeable material and has a larger pore size and porosity than those of the first porous material, a binder, a solvent, and an additive; a second operation of injecting the slurry into a mold, bringing the mold containing the slurry into contact with a freezing plate maintained at a temperature below a freezing point of the slurry, growing grains in a direction of a temperature gradient, and freeze-casting the grains to form a layered structure, and a third operation of sublimating water, while freeze-drying the freeze-cast block, to form a structural gap,” Oh [0023]).
Oh does not explicitly disclose the aerogel material is organic. However, in a similar invention Stepanian discloses in regards to aerogel composite with fibrous batting, “A variety of different aerogel
compositions are known and may be inorganic or organic. Inorganic aero gels are generally based upon metal alkoxides and include materials such as silica, carbides, and alumina. Organic aerogels include carbon aerogels and polymeric aerogels such as polyimides,” Stepanian Column 1 Lines 43 – 48. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize organic aerogels composites of Stepanian in the invention of Oh since Stepanian explains that organic aerogels include carbon aerogels and Oh suggests carbon aerogels, further as explained by Stepanian “It is also well known to those trained in the art that organic aerogels can be made from polyacrylates, polystyrenes, polyacrylonitriles, polyurethanes, polyimides, polyfurfural alcohol, phenol furfuryl alcohol, melmnine formaldehydes, resorcinol formaldehydes, cresol formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, polyvinyl alcohol dialdehyde, polycyanurates, polyacrylamides, various epoxies, agar, agarose, and the like,” Stepanian Column 5 Lines 24 – 31), thereby allowing for the advantage of using various materials with predictable results.
Claim 2: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein a size of the metal frame in a thickness direction of the first support housing is 0.1 mm to 3 mm (see at least, “The embodiment provides manufacturing a sound amplifying block formed from a sound amplifier capable of amplifying sound by adsorbing air and having a size of 1 mm or more and capable of maximizing air adsorption performance,” Oh [0043]).
Claim 4: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein the metal frame is a metal woven mesh or a metal hollow mesh; or, the metal frame is made of metal fiber porous material or open-cell metal foam material (see at least, “U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,555 (Ramamurthi et al.) discloses an aerogel matrix composite of a bulk aerogel with fibers dispersed within the bulk aerogel and a method for preparing the aerogel matrix composite. The fibers may be long or short fibers of varying thicknesses, whiskers, mineral wool, glass wool, and even particles. The composition of the reinforcing material is an oxide such as SiO2 and Al2O3 (fibers, whiskers, and wools) and carbon, metals, and a variety of oxides (particles). Preferred fibers are glass wool and rock wool. The fibers may be randomly distributed or oriented. They may also be in the form of individual fibers, bundles of fibers, mats or sheets, woven or unwoven. The aerogel matrix composite is substantially crack-free with
substantially no volume shrinkage. The composites are formed by infiltrating fibrous pre-forms, either woven or non-woven, with gel precursors, followed by drying of the wet gel under supercritical conditions,” Stepanian Column 1 Line 62 – Column 2 Line 11, “When a metal mesh is used as one or more of the central layers, it also offers the benefit of producing an aerogel composite material which is not only drapeable or flexible, but is also conformable, i.e. it can retain its shape after bending,” Stepanian Column 10 Lines 20 – 24).
Claim 6: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein the first support housing has a density of 0.3 g/cm3 to 1.2 g/cm3 (see at least, “Aerogels typically have low bulk densities (about 0.15 g/cc or less, preferably about 0.03 to 0.3 g/cc),” Stepanian Column 4 Lines 36 – 37).
Claim 7: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein the first support housing has a thickness of 0.2 mm to 3 mm (see at least, “The embodiment provides manufacturing a sound amplifying block formed from a sound amplifier capable of amplifying sound by adsorbing air and having a size of 1 mm or more and capable of maximizing air adsorption performance,” Oh [0043]).
Claim 10: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein the first support housing has a thermal conductivity greater than or equal to 1 W/m*K (see at least, “When the additional layer is of a high (>1 W/m-K) thermal conductivity material such as a carbon fiber, silicon carbide, or a metal, the resulting composite has been found to exhibit a significantly enhanced ability to rapidly dissipate heat,” Stepanian Column 10 Lines 6 – 10).
Claim 11: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein a mass of the organic aerogel material accounts for 30% to 70% of the total mass of the first support housing (see at least, “As another aspect of the embodiment, in the first operation, the second porous material may be mixed in an amount of 12 to 72 wt % of the first porous material, the binder may be mixed in an amount of O to 10 wt % of the first porous material, the solvent may be mixed in an amount of 80 to 150 wt % of the first porous material, and the additive may be mixed in an amount of O to 10 wt % of the first porous material,” Oh [0024]).
Claim 12: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, wherein the organic aerogel material is at least one selected from the group consisting of polyimide aerogel, polyamide aerogel, polyester aerogel, aldehyde aerogel, polyolefin aerogel and polysaccharide aerogel (see at least, “It is also well known to those trained in the art that organic aerogels can be made from polyacrylates, polystyrenes, polyacrylonitriles, polyurethanes, polyimides, polyfurfural alcohol, phenol furfuryl alcohol, melmnine formaldehydes, resorcinol formaldehydes, cresol formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, polyvinyl alcohol dialdehyde, polycyanurates, polyacrylamides, various epoxies, agar, agarose, and the like,” Stepanian Column 5 Lines 24 – 31).
Claim 13: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 12, wherein the metal frame and the organic aerogel material are integrally formed by injection molding or mold pressing (see at least, “a second operation of injecting the slurry into a mold,” Oh [0023]).
Claim 14: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of any one of claim 1, wherein the housing further comprises a second support housing, wherein the second support housing is connected to the first support housing by integral injection molding or by adhesive (see at least, “FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a microspeaker enclosure filled with porous granules according to the related art. According to the related art, the microspeaker 1 is mounted in enclosure cases 2 and 3, and a back volume 4 is formed between the upper and lower enclosure cases 2 and 3,” Oh [0004], “a second operation of injecting the slurry into a mold,” Oh [0023], “Here, instead of a mold, the enclosure case of the microspeaker may be used as a mold to perform freeze-casting, thereby integrating the sound amplifying block with the enclosure case,” Oh [0054]); and wherein the second support housing is made of at least one selected from the group consisting of PC and its modified material, PA and its modified materials, PPS and its modified materials, PP and its modified materials, ABS and its modified materials, LCP and its modified materials, PEI and its modified materials, phenolic resin and its modified materials, epoxy resin and its modified materials, unsaturated polyester and its modified materials, stainless steel and aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, and metal-based composite materials (see at least, “As another aspect of the embodiment, the first porous material may be one or more materials selected from
metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolite, activated carbon, and magnesium silicate,” Oh [0013], “As another aspect of the embodiment, the aerogel may include one or more of silica aerogel, carbon aerogel, alumina aerogel, and titania aerogel,” Oh [0016], “It is also well known to those trained in the art that organic aerogels can be made from polyacrylates, polystyrenes, polyacrylonitriles, polyurethanes, polyimides, polyfurfural alcohol, phenol furfuryl alcohol, melmnine formaldehydes, resorcinol formaldehydes, cresol formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, polyvinyl alcohol dialdehyde, polycyanurates, polyacrylamides, various epoxies, agar, agarose, and the like,” Stepanian Column 5 Lines 24 – 31).
Claim 15: Oh and Stepanian disclose a sound production device, comprising a sound production unit, and the housing of the sound production device of claim 1 wherein the sound production unit is disposed in the housing (see at least, “FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a microspeaker enclosure filled with porous granules according to the related art. According to the related art, the microspeaker 1 is mounted in enclosure cases 2 and 3, and a back volume 4 is formed between the upper and lower enclosure cases 2 and 3,” Oh [0004], “Here, instead of a mold, the enclosure case of the microspeaker may be used as a mold to perform freeze-casting, thereby integrating the sound amplifying block with the enclosure case,” Oh [0054]).
Claim 16: Oh and Stepanian disclose an electronic apparatus, comprising the sound production device of claim 15 (see at least, “Microspeakers, devices that are installed in portable devices and generates sound, and have been installed in various devices with the recent development of mobile devices. In particular, recently developed mobile devices have become lighter, smaller, and slimmer for easier portability, and accordingly, microspeakers installed in mobile devices have also been required to be smaller and slimmer,” Oh [0002]).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh and Stepanian in view of Ramamurthi et al. (US 5,306,555), hereinafter Ramamurthi.
Claim 16: Oh and Stepanian disclose the housing of the sound production device of claim 1, but do not disclose wherein the first support housing has a shrinkage rate of 5% to 10%. However, Ramamurthi discloses in regards to aerogel matric composites where “conventional aerogels made from nonreinforced gels exhibit between 5-15 percent volume shrinkage,” Ramamurthi Column 9 Lines 39 – 41. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a shrinkage rate of 5% to 10% for the first support housing of Oh and Stepanian given “conventional aerogels made from nonreinforced gels exhibit between 5-15 percent volume shrinkage,” Ramamurthi Column 9 Lines 39 – 41.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 9 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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/JOSEPH SAUNDERS JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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