DETAILED ACTION
Claims 15 and 16 have been added.
Claim 2 has been cancelled.
Claims 1 and 3-16 are currently pending.
Claims 3-10, 12 and 14 are withdrawn from consideration.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 11, 13, 15 and 16 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claims 1, 11, 13, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kanada US Publication 2019/0197303 (hereafter” Kanada”) and Honda US Publication 2017/0099403 (hereafter “Honda”).
Referring to claims 1, 11 and 13, Kanada discloses an image processing apparatus comprising:
one or more memories that store instructions (paragraph 28, The control unit 11 may appropriately include an IC or a plurality of ICs that have a processor (for example, a CPU 11a; this may be an ASIC or cooperation of an ASIC, a CPU, and the like), a ROM 11b, a RAM 11c, and the like, another memory, and the like); and
one or more processors configured to execute the instructions stored in the one or more memories to:
acquire image data (paragraph 40, The control unit 11 (data acquisition unit 20) acquires the document image data transmitted from the scanner 30 as described above via the communication IF 14 (Step S100));
perform a character recognition process on the acquired image data to detect a character string (paragraph 41, The control unit 11 (file name generation unit 21) recognizes character strings included in document image data by executing character recognition (optical character recognition/reader: OCR) on the document image data that is acquired in Step S100 as a target (Step S110)), and create a folder path including one or more of the detected character strings (paragraph 53, Then, the control unit 11 saves the document image data acquired in Step S100 as the file to which the file name decided in Step S160 is applied (Step S170). In this case, the file is saved in the folder set in the folder setting section 42 at the timing at which the aforementioned predetermined button (OK button 45) is operated);
determine whether or not each character string constituting the created folder path matches with each character string constituting a specific(paragraph 79, In the example in FIG. 5A, the control unit 11 branches processing depending on whether or not a specific character string have been able to be detected from the character strings in data as a result of searching for the specific character string in Step S121 after executing Step S121 (Step S122);
for a character string constituting the created folder path and matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past, skip comparing a certainty factor of the character string constituting the created folder path with a threshold (paragraph 79, That is, in a case in which one or more specific character strings have been able to be detected from the character strings in data (Yes in Step S122), the control unit 11 ends Step S120 and moves on to the next step (Step S130 in the example in FIG. 2));
for a character string constituting the created folder path and not matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past (paragraph 74, Meanwhile, in a case in which no specific character string has been able to be detected from the character strings in data (No in Step S122), the control unit 11 moves on to Step S123, ends Step S123, and then moves on to the next step (Step S130 in the example in FIG. 2))
determine a character string constituting the created folder path and not matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past (paragraph 75, In Step S123, the control unit 11 decides a character string indicating the type of the original document on the basis of the size of the original document).
Kanada does not disclose expressly comparing certainty factors of the character constituting the created folder path if there is no match.
Honda discloses for a character string constituting the created folder path and not matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past, compare the certainty factor of the character string constituting the created folder path with the threshold (paragraph 46, In S704, when the MFP 100 receives the analysis result and the enlargement area information, in S705, the CPU 101 of the MFP 100 compares a maximum value of the reliability as the received analysis result with a predetermined threshold);
determine a character string constituting the created folder path and not matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past and the certainty factor of the character string constituting the created folder path is equal to or less than the threshold to be an uncertain character string (paragraph 47, On the other hand, in S705, in a case where the maximum value is lower than the threshold (S705: No), the CPU 101 advances the processing to S707. It should be noted that the case where the maximum value is lower than the threshold is a case where the CPU 101 does not automatically identify the type of the document corresponding to the target image data); and
set the created folder path as a confirmation target for the user in a case in which the created folder path includes at least one uncertain character string (paragraph 47, In view of the above, in this case, processing is performed such that folders of distribution destination candidates are displayed, and the user is asked to specify the distribution destination folder. That is, in S707, the CPU 101 displays a folder specification screen (which is denoted by reference symbol 805 of FIG. 8)).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to compare certainty factors whenever an OCRed character string does not match specific folder paths approved in the past. The motivation for doing so would have been to prevent OCR errors from resulting in storing a file incorrectly. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Honda with Kanada to obtain the invention as specified in claims 1, 11 and 13.
Referring to claim 15, Kanada discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the instructions stored in the one or more memories to:
acquire all folder paths approved by the user in the past (paragraph 38, character strings, inputs of which have been received as file names by the control unit 11 that executes the program A in the past, may be registered as a type of the specific character strings in the table T).
Referring to claim 16, Kanada discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the instructions stored in the one or more memories to:
determine, a character string constituting the created folder path matching with a character string constituting the specific folder path approved by the user in the past (paragraph 37, In Step S120, the file name generation unit 21 searches for specific character strings registered in advance from among the character strings (hereinafter, referred to as character strings in data) included in the document image data recognized in Step S110).
Kanada does not disclose expressly determining, from a highest layer to which layer matches the specific folder path.
Honda discloses determining, from a highest layer to which layer matches the specific folder path approved by the user in the past (paragraph 84, According to the present exemplary embodiment, a folder is hierarchized. FIG. 19B is an explanatory diagram for describing folder information 1900 illustrated in FIG. 19A. A bill folder 1902 belonging to a highest-order folder 1901 is equivalent to “<1> bill” indicated by the folder information 1900. Then, folders 1903 to 1908 respectively corresponding to (1) to (6) of the folder information 1900 are set under the bill folder 1902).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to determines which layer matches the specific folder path. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow for more efficient storing of documents by using subfolders to organize different files. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Honda with Kanada to obtain the invention as specified in claim 16.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER K HUNTSINGER whose telephone number is (571)272-7435. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 - 5:00.
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, Benny Q Tieu can be reached at 571-272-7490. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER K HUNTSINGER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2682
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