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 4/24/23. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Japanese application as required by 37 CFR 1.55 could not be retrieved.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55 for Japanese applications filed 9/29/22 and 4/19/23.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 11/13/24 has been considered.
Drawings
The drawings filed 11/13/24 are acceptable to the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: AN ACOUSTIC SYSTEM IN A VEHICLE THAT CONTROLS A SPEAKER OUTPUT BASED ON A STATE OF AN OCCUPANT
Examiner’s Comments
Claim 1 sets forth the language “at least one of a volume, a tempo, and a direction of the sound emitted from the speaker”. The use of the term “and” is critical and makes the list conjunctive; however, it appears from the specification that applicant intended that the phrase should be written using disjunctive language. See applicants figure 7, box S104. Applicant not desiring such a conjunctive interpretation may simply employ the term “or” instead of the term “and” to make the list disjunctive. Examiner will interpret the noted phase as intended as discussed in the specification, i.e. disjunctive. Art that satisfies any one of the features of volume, tempo or direction will therefore be considered to teach this claimed feature.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 11 sets forth a vehicle without providing any specifics of this vehicle that includes the acoustic system as set forth in claim 1; therefor setting no more than already set forth, and providing no structural arrangement of features of a vehicle with those features of the acoustic system of claim 1.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by (Tanabe et al., WO 2022/045258 A1), cited by applicant (note equivalent document US 2023/0311732 A1 cited by applicant for translation used in the applied teaching).
Re claim 1: Tanabe et al. teaches an acoustic system, comprising:
an interior member (such as a seat with a headrest (figures 1-2, 12) for a conveyance including at least one speaker (15);
a state detection unit that detects a state of an occupant or the interior member (such as biometric sensor (418) as part of a plurality of sensors (figure 12) used to acquire a body shape and seat height of a person or sensor (420) sensing the reclining angle of the seat) (see paragraphs [0186 and 0187] of equivalent document; and
a control unit (401 including element (404)) that is connected to the speaker and the state detection unit, and that controls the speaker,
wherein the control unit includes a state determination unit that determines the state of the occupant or the interior member based on information received from the state detection unit, and an acoustic control unit that controls, when sound is emitted from the speaker, at least one of a volume, a tempo, and a direction of the sound emitted from the speaker (paragraphs [0186], control the direction of sound output; and paragraph [0188], decrease the volume of sound output), based on the determined state of the occupant or the interior member satisfying the language “at least one of” as set forth.
Re claim 11: note the acoustic system of Tanabe et al. as discussed with respect to claim 1 is part of a vehicle, a vehicle that includes seats
Re claim 2: note sensor (418) is a biometric sensor used to obtain biometric information of an occupant that is used by the control unit for controlling sound
Re claim 3: the claimed wakefulness of an occupant is considered as sensed biometric features that are sensed including heart rate, respiratory rate or pulse rate (see applicants disclosure paragraph [0037] which are taught by Tanabe et al., paragraph [0227]
Re claim 4: note that control device (404) can change the volume of the speaker based on biometric information obtained with this change in volume including both a decrease in volume and an increase in volume based on the biometric information that is sensed, satisfying the features as set forth.
Re claim 5: note the interior member includes a convenience seat including at least two speakers (15) separated from each other (figure 2) along with posture determining sensor (420) which is used to control audio that is emitted by the speakers, paragraph [0188]
Re claim 6: the language of a rotatable seat at a rotation angle in a seat up and down direction is taught by the rotation angle of the seat by the reclining angle as taught in paragraph [0187] used for acoustic control (paragraph [0189])
Re claim 7: note that in a vehicle there can be a plurality of rows of interior members (seats), figures 27 and 28; where occupants are seated that enables control of those speakers for each seat based on detected biometric sensing or reclining angle of a respective seat.
Re claim 8: the determining of a head position in satisfied by the determination of the reclining angle of the seat (paragraph 0188] or if a person’s head is in contact with a headrest, paragraph [0192] which based on this detection controls sound emitted by the speaker(s)
Re claim 9: note headrest (17) can include a damper (17) that suppresses vibration, i.e. modifies the sound from a speaker, paragraph [0160] that is then heard by the occupant of the seat.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanabe et al. in view of Okubo (US 9,746,048 B2) .
Re claim 10: The teaching of Tanabe et al. is discussed above and incorporated herein. Tanabe et al. although teaching a headrest with spaced speakers does not teach that a damper is connected to a headrest pillar between the speakers. Okubo teaches in a similar environment of seats including headrests to include a damper, i.e. a damper case (17) that is connected to a center of a headrest via a pillar (12) to suppress any vibrations to a user’s head. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to incorporate a damper as taught in Okubo into the headrest arrangement of Tanabe et al. to predictably provide a means of suppressing vibrations occurring in this rest to the user. Therefor the claimed subject matter would have been obvious before the filing of the invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW SNIEZEK whose telephone number is (571)272-7563. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00 AM-3:30 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ahmad Matar can be reached at 571-272-7488. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW SNIEZEK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
/A.S./Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693 5/11/26
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