DETAILED ACTION
This is the First Action on the Merits for U.S. Patent Application No. 19/039,977, filed 29 January 2025, which is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 17/578,870, now U.S. Patent No. 12,244,959, filed 19 January 2022, which claims domestic priority to Provisional Application No. 63/139,060, filed 19 January 2021.
Claims 1–30 are pending.
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 U.S.C. § 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.
Claims 1, 2, 7, 8, and 15–22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The terms “substantially parallel” and “substantially perpendicular” in the claims are relative terms which render the claims indefinite. The term “substantially” is not defined by the claims, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For example, in closest prior art US 2021/0317945 A11 at Figure 9, would display assembly 2 be substantially perpendicular or not to support bar 210?
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11–142 are allowed.
Claims 3–6, 9, 10, and 23–30 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: each of the independent claims recite that in the wall-mountable configuration, the two base members are spaced apart from the bottom surface of the television monitor along the monitor height axis. As discussed above in the Notice of Allowance for the ‘959 application, this distinguishes from the closest prior art including the ‘945 publication and US 2007/01452123 in which feet or supports analogous to the claimed base members are hidden in a wall-mountable configuration. The advantage of the present invention is enabling a soundbar to be mounted on the base members in the wall-mountable configuration.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following prior art was found using an Artificial Intelligence assisted search using an internal AI tool that uses the classification of the application under the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system, as well as from the specification, including the claims and abstract, of the application as contextual information. The documents are ranked from most to least relevant. Where possible, English-language equivalents are given, and redundant results within the same patent families are eliminated. See “New Artificial Intelligence Functionality in PE2E Search”, 1504 OG 359 (15 November 2022), “Automated Search Pilot Program”, 90 F.R. 48,161 (8 October 2025).
US 2015/0097102 A1
FR 2687436 A1
US 5139223 A
GB 2100090 A
US 2003/0189155 A1
US 5810314 A
JP 2001099135 A
US 4607897 A
US 2012/0085713 A1
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David N Werner whose telephone number is (571)272-9662. The examiner can normally be reached M--F 7:30--4:00 Central.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dave Czekaj can be reached at 571.272.7327. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/David N Werner/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
1 This reference was listed in the 21 February 2025 Information Disclosure Statement.
2 Claim 17 is dependent on claim 14, with intervening claims 15 and 16 dependent on claim 11. See M.P.E.P. § 608.01(n)(IV) (best practice for claim sequence). Applicant is requested to confirm whether claim 17 is intended to be dependent on claim 14 or on claim 11.
3 This reference was listed in the 21 February 2025 Information Disclosure Statement.
Prosecution Insights