US 6,243,003 · Granted 2001-06-05
The Windshield Microphone Mount That Made Car Calls Hands-Free
This patent covers a small box that clips onto your windshield and holds a microphone for your car's phone or emergency system. It sits right above your rearview mirror, stays in one spot, and even includes a cover that hides the messy wires—making the whole setup look clean and professional.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a modular housing that mounts to a vehicle's windshield, contains a microphone with fixed orientation, and can be installed either during manufacturing or as an aftermarket retrofit. What's protected here is the specific design of how the microphone box attaches to the windshield, how it positions the microphone relative to the mirror and headliner, and the optional wire cover system that conceals the mirror harness while keeping everything structurally connected and visually finished.
Why it matters
In the late 1990s, as mobile phones started appearing in cars, manufacturers needed a clean, simple way to mount microphones for hands-free calling without cluttering the dashboard or windshield with visible hardware. This patent gave Donnelly Corporation a way to integrate microphone mounting directly with the existing rearview mirror infrastructure—a smart reuse of real estate that made aftermarket installation practical for dealers and buyers who wanted professional-looking in-car communication systems without major modification.
Real-world use
When you sit in a car from the early 2000s with a built-in hands-free phone system and speak toward the windshield to make a call, you're using a microphone mounted in a module very similar to what this patent describes.
Original USPTO abstract
An accessory module for use with a vehicular cellular telephone, emergency communication device, or other audio device, may be mounted to an interior surface of a vehicle windshield. The accessory module houses a microphone and may be positioned adjacent to a headliner of the vehicle generally above an interior rearview mirror which is supported therebelow. The accessory module provides a fixed orientation of the microphone and is easily installed to the vehicle as it is manufactured or as an aftermarket device. The accessory module may further include a wire cover, which extends to a mounting for the mirror in order to substantially encase a mirror wire harness, thereby retaining the mirror harness and providing a finished appearance to the mirror and accessory module.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,243,003
- Filing date
- 1999-08-25
- Grant date
- 2001-06-05
- Assignee
- Donnelly Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- DELINE JONATHAN E., LYNAM NIALL R., SPOONER RALPH A.
- CPC class
- B60R11/0247
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