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
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) 1-4 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuen et al. (US 20210281939).
Regarding claim 1, Yuen et al. discloses an earphone (Figs. 1-10) comprising: a core module (1, 5, 10 and 12 in Fig. 1) and a hook-like structure (3) connected to the core module, the core module being located on a front side of an ear in a wearing state, and at least part of the hook-like structure being located on a rear side of the ear in the wearing state, wherein the hook-like structure includes an adapter housing (2 in Fig. 2) connected to the core module, an accommodation cavity (cavity formed in 2) is pre-formed in the adapter housing, and the earphone further comprises an electronic component (27) that is subsequently mounted in the accommodating cavity.
Regarding claim 2, Yuen et al. discloses an earphone of claim 1, wherein the core module includes a core housing (1, 5, 10 and 12), and the adapter housing is integrally formed with the core housing (see Figs. 1 and 2; 2 is integrally formed 1, 5, 10 and 12).
Regarding claim 3, Yuen et al. discloses an earphone of claim 2, wherein the core housing includes an inner core housing (10 and 12, Fig. 1) and an outer core housing (1), a portion of the adapter housing is integrally formed with the inner core housing, and the other portion of the adapter housing is integrally formed with the outer core housing (see Figs. 1, 2 and 6).
Regarding claim 4, Yuen et al. disclose an earphone (Fig. 6) of claim 1, wherein the core module includes a core housing (5, 6, 10 and 12), and a speaker (speaker 11) and a main control circuit board (7) disposed in the core housing, the speaker and the electronic component are respectively coupled with the main control circuit board, and the adapter housing is plugged and fixed with the core housing.
Regarding claim 18, Yuen et al. further disclose in Fig. 8 wherein an inner side, facing the ear in the wearing state, of the core housing is provided with an acoustic outlet hole (the outlet hole in 12; Fig. 6), a sound wave generated by the speaker (11) is propagated out through the acoustic outlet hole, the core module cooperates with a cavum conchae of the ear in the wearing state to form an auxiliary cavity connected to an external ear canal of the ear, and the acoustic outlet hole is at least partially disposed in the auxiliary cavity.
Regarding claim 19, Yuen et al. further disclose in Fig. 6 wherein the core module has a connecting end (10) that is connected to the hook-like structure and a free end (12) that is not connected to the hook-like structure, the free end extends into the cavum conchae, and the auxiliary cavity (15) is formed by the inner side of the core housing and the cavum conchae.
Regarding claim 20, Yuen et al disclose the earphone of claim 18, wherein the auxiliary cavity is configured as a semi-open cavity (cavity in 15, Fig. 6).
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(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuen et al. as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Malkoff et al. (US 2021/0106467).
Yuen et al. disclose the earphone of claim 4 but fails to specifically disclose wherein the adapter housing (9) is provided with a first snap structure, the core housing (5, 6, 10 and 12) is provided with a second snap structure, and the first snap structure extends into the core housing and snaps with the second snap structure to cooperate with each other. However, Malkoff et al. discloses in Fig. 20, an adapter housing (500) is provided with a first snap structure (540-543) that snaps into the second snap structure (slots 530-533) of the core housing. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to incorporate Malkoff et al.’s teaching to Yuen et al. for the purpose of providing a releasable connection between the adapter and the core housing.
Claim(s) 6 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuen et al. as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Linden et al. (US 2019/0327550).
Regarding claim 6, Yuen et al. disclose the earphone of claim 4 but fails to specifically disclose that the earphone comprising a flexible circuit board as claimed. However, Linden et al. disclose in Figs. 11 and 14 an earphone comprising a flexible circuit board assembly comprising a flexible circuit board (170 and the extension path connection between 170 and 152) is connected to the electronic component (battery) and extends into the core housing, such that the electronic component is connected to the main control circuit board 152 via the flexible circuit board (170 and the extension path connection between 170 and 152), and the speaker 130 is configured to be connected to the flexible circuit board on an extension path (the path connection between the main circuit board 152 and of the flexible circuit board 170), such that the speaker is connected to the main control circuit board via the flexible circuit board. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to incorporate Linden et al.’s flexible circuit board assembly to Yuen et al. for the purpose of providing a spatially folded circuit board assembly for the earphone.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Yuen et al. in view of Linden et al. teaches the earphone of claim 6, wherein the flexible circuit board includes a first circuit board section, a second circuit board section, and a third circuit board section, the second circuit board section (170, Fig. 16 of Yuen et al) is bent with respect to the first circuit board section (152, Fig. 16 of Yuen et al.), and the third circuit board section (160, Fig. 16 of Yuen et al.) is bent with respect to the second circuit board section, such that the first circuit board section, the second circuit board section, and the third circuit board section are adjacent to one another in pairs.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuen et al. in view of Linden et al. as applied to claim 6 above, and further in official notice.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Yuen et al. in view of Linden et al. discloses the earphone of claim 6 but fails to specifically disclose that the speaker and the flexible circuit board are connected by welding. The examiner takes the official notice that speakers weld to circuit boards are well known in the art of audio devices at the time of filing. Since the combination fails to specifically disclosed how the speaker is connected to flexible circuit board, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to use any known attachment techniques to provide the connection including welding to implement the function of providing electrical connection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-17 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.
Citation of Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
WO 2020186594 discloses an upper part of a circuit board is welded with loudspeaker, audio codec and etc.
Conclusion
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/SINH TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2637
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