Appeal No. 96-2515
Application 08/037,567
2. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated by Moseley.
3. Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated by Konomi ‘428.
4. Claims 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Konomi ‘867 in
view of Konomi ‘428.
The respective positions of the examiner and the appellant with regard to the propriety of
these rejections are set forth in the final rejection (Paper No. 8 1/2) and the examiner's answer and
supplemental answer (Paper Nos. 14 and 16, respectively) and the appellant's brief (Paper No. 13) and reply
brief (Paper No. 15).
Appellant's Invention
Appellant discloses a speaker and a microphone disposed within a housing to be positioned at
the external auditory canal of a user’s ear. The speaker receives input signals from communications apparatus
and produces an audible output in response thereto. The microphone receives audible input from the user and
produces output signals which may be transmitted by the communications apparatus. The microphone and the
speaker are acoustically isolated from one another such that the audible output from the speaker element does
not create feedback to the microphone.
The Rejection of Claims 1-3, 7, 9-14 and 16-20
under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) over Konomi ‘867
At page 6 of its brief, appellant states that independent claims 1 and 16 fall. Considered with
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