DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Owaki et al. (2020/0276817) in view of Smith et al. (4,791,435) in view of Egawa et al. (2020/0255683).
Regarding claim 1, Owaki teaches an inkjet printer that ejects ink to perform printing, the inkjet printer comprising:
an inkjet head (fig. 7, item 312) that ejects ink; a carriage (fig. 1, item 242) on which the inkjet head (fig. 1, item 26) is mounted; a carriage drive mechanism (fig. 1, item 203) that moves the carriage in a main scanning direction (fig. 1, X direction); a pressure adjustment mechanism (fig. 2, item 75/71/14/72) that accommodates the ink supplied to the inkjet head and adjusts an internal pressure of the inkjet head (see fig. 2);
an ink warming mechanism (fig. 3, all components within 311) that is disposed between the pressure adjustment mechanism and the inkjet head in an ink supply path to the inkjet head and warms the ink supplied to the inkjet head (see figs. 2, 3), wherein the ink warming mechanism includes: a warming part main body (fig. 3, unlabeled block-shaped part in which items 91, 92, 95, 97 are disposed) that is block-shaped, an ink passing portion (fig. 3, item 95) that is formed inside the warming part main body and through which ink passes, and a heater (fig. 3, item 313) that heats the warming part main body ([0033]);
a controller (fig. 1, item 20) that controls the inkjet printer;
a temperature sensor ([0034]), electrically connected to the controller, and configured to detect a temperature of the ink ([0034], note that the sensor is necessarily electrically connected to the controller),
wherein the temperature sensor is disposed inside the warming part main body to directly detect the temperature of the ink in the ink passing portion ([0034], note that, to detect the temperature of the ink in valve 95 specifically, the sensor must be in the warming part main body), or the temperature sensor is attached to a side surface of the warming part main body to indirectly detect the temperature of the ink in the ink passing portion,
wherein the controller is configured to:
cause the inkjet head eject ink to perform printing when a temperature detected by the temperature sensor becomes an appropriate ink ejection temperature ([0034]),
activate
Owaki does not teach a region deviated in the main scanning direction from a printing region where printing is performed is defined as a maintenance region or moving the inkjet head to a maintenance region and forcibly discharging the ink from the inkjet head in the maintenance region. Smith teaches wherein a forcible discharge of ink from a printhead is execute to warm the printhead to a target printing temperature after an idle period in which the printhead has cooled down (Smith, col. 5, lines 42-66, see fig. 3, Note that the spittoon is located at a region in the main scanning direction). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to adapt the line-type printer disclosed by Owaki to be a scanning-type printer of the type disclosed by Smith because doing so would amount to adapting one kind of printer into another to obtain predictable results. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the nozzle warming technique disclosed by Smith to the more general printhead heating technique disclosed by Owaki because doing so would allow for quicker heating of the nozzles for smaller temperature adjustments during short idle periods, whereas Owaki’s heaters would have been more useful for operation during longer idle periods for larger temperature adjustments.
Upon combination of Smith’s small-temperature-variation warming technique with Owaki’s larger-temperature-variation warming technique, the resultant device would operate so as to turn on Owaki’s heater 313 when there was a large difference between the measured head temperature and a target printing temperature, e.g., immediately after power on or after a long idle period, and the measured head temperature was below a first reference temperature, and Smith’s technique would be employed when the difference between a measured head temperature and the target printing temperature was small, e.g., after a short idle period, when the measured head temperature was higher than a second reference temperature, the second reference temperature being higher than the first reference temperature.
Owaki in view of Smith does not expressly teach wherein a forcible discharge of ink by the printhead maintains an internal pressure of a printhead at a negative pressure. Egawa teaches wherein forcible discharge of ink during a flushing operation is executed with an internal negative head pressure (Egawa, [0125]). It would have been obvious to maintain the head disclosed by Owaki in view of Smith at a negative pressure, as disclosed by Egawa because doing so would amount to applying known range of internal pressures during a forcible discharge operation, as disclosed by Egawa, to a known printhead to obtain predictable results.
Note that the claim recites executing the forcible discharge “to maintain an internal pressure of the printhead at a negative pressure.” Examiner is interpreting Egawa’s disclosure of a forcible discharge being executed while an internal pressure is negative to meet the limitation. No other language in the claim specifies how such discharge itself maintains the internal pressure.
Regarding claim 2, Owaki in view of Smith and Egawa teaches the inkjet printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the second reference temperature is set so that an internal pressure of the inkjet head when a temperature detected by the temperature sensor reaches the second reference temperature becomes a negative pressure (Note that inkjet heads are always kept at a negative pressure so as to prevent undesired ink dribbling from the nozzles).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Owaki in view of Smith and Egawa teaches the inkjet printer as set forth in claims 1 and 2,
wherein the inkjet head is formed with a plurality of nozzles (Owaki, fig. 3, items 43) for ejecting ink;
the inkjet head includes a plurality of ejection energy generating elements (Owaki, fig. 3, items 47) for ejecting ink from each of the plurality of nozzles; and
the controller forcibly discharges ink from the inkjet head by driving the ejection energy generating element and ejecting ink in the maintenance region (Smith, [0034]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The claims have been amended to further specify the structure of the device, but the amendment fails to distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art. The rejections above have been updated to reflect the changes to the claims.
Applicant seems to argue that the heating portion 313 is actually part of the liquid ejecting head and thus not distinct and upstream from the head. However, the rejections define 312 as the head unit and 311 as the warming part, and thus the heater 313 located on the warming part 311 is distinct and upstream from the head. In fact, Owaki even states at [0032] that the flow path structure 311 is “detachable from the liquid ejecting head 312,” which would seem to indicated that the head and the warming part are indeed distinct, and if the heater is disclosed on the warming part, it is not also part of the head.
The standing prior art rejection is maintained.
Conclusion
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/ALEJANDRO VALENCIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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