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 .
Status of Application
This communication is responsive to the applicant's preliminary amendment filed 12/23/2024.
Claims 17-36 are pending. Claims 1-16 have been cancelled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 34-36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ferren (US-5,542,604).
Regarding claim 34, Ferren discloses a method of operating a shower assembly (see Figs. 1-3) comprising: flowing fluid through a shower device (Fig. 1, 18, where the water supply is flowing through a water faucet or spout, see col. 2, lines 51-55) including a valve assembly (26) in a first shower operation state (see col. 2, lines 33-50); producing an audio output through a speaker component of a speaker (42) couplable to the shower device in a first speaker operation state (activate state, see col. 3, lines 50-56); sensing with a sensor (22) a shift in operation of the first shower operation state to a different second shower operation state (button is released and the valve shuts off the water supply to the spout, see col. 2, lines 41-42); and controlling with a control component (Fig. 2, pole 2) the speaker component in response to sensing the shift in operation of the shower device (releasing the push button) to operate the speaker at a second speaker operation state (deactivate the speaker operation) different than the first speaker operation state (activate state).
Regarding claim 35, see col. 3, lines 4-17, and line 37-56, wherein the first speaker operation state and the second speaker operation state differ in at least one of volume, tone, quality of output, playback, or mode of an external device detected by the control component based on the first shower operation state (activate state) or the second shower operation state (deactivate state).
Regarding claim 36, see col. 2, lines 32-50; and col. 4, lines 52-56.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17-33 are allowable over prior art of record.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ingalz, Katzman, Berkman et al, and Patton et al disclose various shower devices including speaker assemblies.
Issued patent(s) 11,832,042, 11,178,475, 10,171,900, 10,003,873 of parent application(s) 17/500,348, 16/237,254, 16/002,397, 14/606,831 are made of record here as pertinent art to the claimed invention.
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/XU MEI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695 10/14/2026
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