DETAILED ACTION
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 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 14, 16-21, 23, 25 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 14 was amended to recite “wherein the apparatus lacks any detecting portion that detects the other side-edge of the sheet.”
There is no support for this limitation in the originally filed specification (i.e., the specification does not explicitly exclude such detection portion(s)), meaning claim 14 contains new matter. While Applicant states support is in ¶50, the phrase “only on one side” applies to “position correction of the sheet S with respect to the widthwise direction,” and not to the whole apparatus.
Claims 16-21, 23, 25 and 27 contain new matter for depending from claim 14.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 14, 16, 18-21, 23, and 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yasumoto (JP 2012056668 A) in view of Inoue (US 20100189486 A1) and Shiokawa et al. (US 20190033770 A1, hereinafter Shiokawa).
As to claim 14, Yasumoto teaches an image forming apparatus comprising:
an image forming portion 60D configured to form an image on a sheet;
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a first conveying roller pair 6 (figs. 1 and 13) disposed downstream of the image forming portion in a feeding direction, and configured to nip and convey the sheet;
a first detecting portion SN4 (fig. 13) configured to detect a side edge position of the sheet with respect to a widthwise direction perpendicular to the feeding direction (¶45 teaches that the “thrust position” is “the width direction position of the sheet,” and ¶66 teaches “SN4 is a line sensor having an element row in the width direction, and can…detect the…thrust position”; ¶72 teaches “ the position in the width direction is detected by the fourth sensor SN4”);
a first moving portion 43 (fig. 3) configured to move the sheet in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the first conveying roller pair (¶36, ¶51, and fig. 7);
a second conveying roller pair 65X (fig. 1 above) disposed upstream of the image forming portion in the feeding direction, and configured to nip and convey the sheet toward the image forming portion;
a second detecting portion SN3 configured to detect a side edge position of the sheet with respect to the widthwise direction (¶56, ¶73);
and
a control portion (overall control structure of the apparatus) configured to control the first moving portion based on a detection result of the first detecting portion (¶67-72).
Yasumoto does not explicitly teach a second moving portion configured to move the sheet in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the second conveying roller pair;
the control portion is configured to control the second moving portion based on a detection result of the second detecting portion,
wherein the first detecting portion and the second detecting portion are disposed so as to detect the one side edge of both side edges of the sheet to be conveyed and so as not to detect the other side edge of both side edges of the sheet to be conveyed,
wherein the one side-edge detected by the first detecting portion and the one side-edge detected by the second detecting portion are the same side-edge of the sheet with respect to the widthwise direction, and
wherein the apparatus lacks any detecting portion that detects the other side-edge of the sheet.
Inoue teaches a second moving portion 33 configured to move the sheet in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the second conveying roller pair 30 (figs. 1-2 and ¶14);
the control portion (overall control structure including CPU 120A - ¶74) is configured to control the second moving portion based on a detection result of the second detecting portion 35 (¶75 and ¶82; ¶93 clarifies that, in the duplex mode, the control portion uses the second moving portion to laterally shift the sheet for printing of the front and back sides of the sheet, in such a manner that the life of the fixing roller is prolonged; note that figs. 1-2 show that the second detection portion detects the edge of the sheet toward the rear side of the apparatus, from the perspective of fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of Yasumoto to have a second moving portion configured to move the sheet in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the second conveying roller pair, wherein the control portion is configured to control the second moving portion based on a detection result of the second detecting portion, wherein the second detecting portion is on the rear side of the apparatus, and wherein the control portion uses the second moving portion to laterally shift the sheet for printing of the front and back sides of the sheet, in such a manner that the life of the fixing roller is prolonged, as taught by Inoue, so as to make the fixing roller last longer and/or so as to align the sheet in the lateral direction when printing on the first side of the sheet (¶82 and ¶93 - Inoue).
Shiokawa teaches a first detection portion SE2 on a sheet refeeding path section (see fig. 1), wherein the first detection portion SE2 is situated on a side of the sheet path so as to only detect one side edge of the sheet (¶49; figs. 1 and 3, and ¶14, show that the first detection portion SE2 is positioned toward the rear side of the sheet path from the perspective of fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of Yasumoto as modified such that at least the first detecting portion is situated on a rear side of the sheet path so as to only detect one side edge of the sheet as taught by Shiokawa so as to minimize the size of the first detecting portion in comparison with a scenario in which the first detecting portion possibly spans the width of the sheet or more.
Yasumoto as modified teaches wherein the first detecting portion and the second detecting portion are disposed so as to detect the one side edge of both side edges of the sheet to be conveyed and so as not to detect the other side edge of both side edges of the sheet to be conveyed,
wherein the one side-edge detected by the first detecting portion and the one side-edge detected by the second detecting portion are the same side-edge of the sheet with respect to the widthwise direction (in view of Inoue and Shiokawa, the first and second detecting portions detect the edge of the sheet toward the rear side of the apparatus), and
wherein the apparatus lacks any detecting portion that detects the other side-edge of the sheet (in the modified Yasumoto, the first and second detecting portions do not detect the other side-edge of the sheet, and Yasumoto does not teach a sensor configured for detecting the other side-edge of the sheet).
If Applicant argues that Yasumoto teaches detecting portion(s) for detecting the other side-edge of the sheet,
it has been held that omission of an element and its function is obvious if the function of the element is not desired. In this case, omitting any sensor(s) in Yasumoto as modified that detect the other side-edge of the sheet would have been obvious if their function(s) are not desired, so as to reduce the weight, cost and/or complexity of the apparatus.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of Yasumoto as modified to omit any sensor(s) in Yasumoto as modified that detect the other side-edge of the sheet if their function(s) are not desired, so as to reduce the weight, cost and/or complexity of the apparatus.
As to claim 16, Yasumoto teaches wherein the first conveying roller pair 6 is a first reversing roller pair 6 configured to reverse the sheet by rotating in a first direction while nipping the sheet on which the image is formed on the first surface by the image forming portion and then by rotating in a second direction opposite to the first direction (¶31).
As to claim 18, Yasumoto teaches a re-feeding portion 100X (fig. 1 above) configured to feed the sheet reversed by the first reversing roller pair 6 toward the second conveying roller pair 65X,
wherein the second conveying roller pair is disposed downstream of the re-feeding portion 100X and upstream of the image forming portion 60D with respect to the feeding direction (see fig. 1).
As to claim 19, Yasumoto teaches wherein the second conveying roller pair is a first registration roller pair 65X configured to correct oblique movement of the sheet conveyed by the first conveying roller pair (¶21; alternatively, the second conveying roller pair is capable of correcting oblique movement of the sheet conveyed by the first conveying roller pair), by abutting a leading end of the sheet against the first registration roller pair (¶21 and 9 teach that roller pair 65X deskews the sheet; ¶77 teaches “in the explanation so far, we have described the case where the skew of the sheet is corrected by abutting the sheet against a stopped conveying roller to form a loop,” which means that first registration roller pair 65X deskews a sheet by abutting a leading end of the sheet against the first registration roller pair; alternatively, first registration roller pair 65X is capable of being used for deskewing a sheet by abutting a leading end of the sheet against the first registration roller pair).
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As to claim 20, Yasumoto teaches wherein the first conveying roller pair 6 (Yasumoto) (1) includes a first roller 6a and a second roller 6b (fig. 3) which are rotatable about axes thereof extending in the widthwise direction, respectively, and (2) moves in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the first roller and the second roller (¶35),
wherein the first registration roller pair 65X (1) includes a third roller and a fourth roller (see fig. 1) which are rotatable about axes thereof extending in the widthwise direction, respectively, and (2) moves in the widthwise direction in a state in which the sheet is nipped by the third roller and the fourth roller (as taught by Inoue).
Yasumoto as modified does not teach wherein a second number of nip portions formed by the third roller and the fourth roller where the sheet is nipped is more than a first number of nip portions formed by the first roller and the second roller where the sheet is nipped.
Inoue further teaches wherein a second number of nip portions formed by the third roller 30a and the fourth roller 30b (of registration roller pair 30) where the sheet is nipped is two (see fig. 2 and ¶65).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of the modified Yasumoto such that the registration roller pair is formed with rollers forming two nips as taught by Inoue since such a modification would be a simple substitution of one kind of roller pair structure for another for the predictable result that sheets are still successfully registered.
Yasumoto as modified teaches wherein a second number of nip portions (being at least 2 nip portions, as taught by Inoue) formed by the third roller and the fourth roller where the sheet is nipped is more than a first number of nip portions (being one single nip as shown in fig. 3 of Yasumoto) formed by the first roller and the second roller where the sheet is nipped.
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As to claim 21, Yasumoto teaches wherein the re-feeding portion includes a second registration roller pair 5X (fig. 13 above) configured to correct oblique movement of the sheet (¶69) reversed by the first reversing roller pair 6 (the apparatus of Yasumoto is capable of being controlled such that, after being printed on the second side, the sheet is refed to the duplex path and deskewed by the second registration roller pair 5X) by abutting a leading end of the sheet against the second registration roller pair (¶69).
As to claim 23, Yasumoto as modified teaches
an accommodating portion 61 (fig. 1 of Yasumoto) configured to accommodate a sheet; and
a feeding portion 63 (Yasumoto) configured to feed the sheet accommodated in the accommodating portion,
wherein when the first image is formed on the first surface of the sheet, the control portion is configured to perform control such that the sheet fed by the feeding portion is moved in the widthwise direction by the second moving portion 33 (Inoue) and is configured to perform control to feed the sheet to the image forming portion (¶85 and ¶93 of Inoue teach that, in duplex printing, the sheet is laterally shifted by the registration rollers within a first lateral shifting range Ny~N’y when printing on the front side, and is laterally shifted within a second lateral shifting range Nx~N’x when being printed on the rear side; accordingly, this is also the case in the modified Yasumoto).
As to claim 27, Yasumoto as modified teaches a wherein in a case where the control portion performs duplex printing for forming a second image on a second surface of a sheet opposite to a first surface of the sheet after forming a first image on the first surface of the sheet by the image forming portion, the control portion performs control such that the sheet is moved in the widthwise direction by the first moving portion 43 (of Yasumoto; see ¶36, ¶51, and fig. 7 of Yasumoto), and then the sheet which has been moved in the widthwise direction by the first moving portion is moved in the widthwise direction by the second moving portion 33 (of Inoue; as previously described in the rejection of claim 23, this is taught in at least ¶85 and ¶95 of Inoue).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yasumoto in view of Inoue and Shiokawa as applied to claim 16 above and further in view of Yamazaki (US 20130334769 A1).
As to claim 17, Yasumoto teaches the limitations of the claim except for a second reversing roller pair provided downstream of the first reversing roller pair with respect to the feeding direction and configured to reverse the sheet by rotating in the first direction while nipping the sheet on which the image is formed on the first surface by the image forming portion and then by rotating in the second direction opposite to the first direction,
wherein the first moving portion moves the sheet nipped by both the first reversing roller pair and the second reversing roller pair with respect to the widthwise direction.
Yamazaki teaches a printer comprising a lateral registration section 30 (fig. 3 and ¶59) that is separate from a non-lateral registration portion 18 (see fig. 1 and ¶35; Yamazaki’s lateral registration section 30 corresponds with Yasumoto’s reversing roller pair 6, which performs lateral registration on a sheet and is separate from Yasumoto’s non-lateral registration portion 5, 65), wherein the lateral registration section 30 comprises laterally shifting roller pairs 31A-B and 32A-B (¶72, ¶74, ¶77-78 and ¶94 teach that follower rollers 31B-32B rotate and shift laterally along with the driven rollers 31A-32A; ¶85 clarifies that one shift block 41 moves two of the four rollers 31A-34A and the other shift block 41 moves the other two of the four rollers) and a motor 45 which laterally shifts the laterally shifting roller pairs by shifting a shifting block 41 (¶82-83),
wherein the motor 45 moves the sheet nipped by both a first laterally shifting roller pair 31A-31B and a second laterally shifting roller pair 32A-32B with respect to the widthwise direction (¶82-83 teaches that the motor 45 drives the lateral motion of the shifting roller pairs, and ¶84 teaches that the shifting roller pairs are moved laterally while both nipping a sheet; the Examiner notes that Yamazaki’s apparatus determines the lateral position of the shift block 41 using a position sensor 75 and a projection 41b formed on the shift block - ¶83).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of the modified Yasumoto such that the first conveying roller pair is connected to another laterally shifting roller pair such that both roller pairs are moved laterally by a motor via a shifting block, while both roller pairs nip a sheet, wherein the lateral position of the shifting roller pairs is determined with a sensor as taught by Yamazaki so as to more accurately position the sheet in the lateral direction with the use of the sensor and projection of the shifting block.
Yasumoto as modified teaches a second reversing roller pair 32A-B (Yamazaki) provided downstream of the first reversing roller pair 6 (Yasumoto) with respect to the feeding direction and configured to reverse the sheet by rotating in the first direction while nipping the sheet on which the image is formed on the first surface by the image forming portion and then by rotating in the second direction opposite to the first direction (¶72 of Yamazaki teaches that the laterally shifting roller pairs are driven concurrently by the same “driving unit”; accordingly, the second reversing roller pair from Yamazaki would be driven by the same driving unit as Yasumoto’s first reversing roller pair 6, such that both reversing roller pairs reverse rotation directions to reverse the conveyance direction of a sheet),
wherein the first moving portion 45 (Yamazaki) moves the sheet nipped by both the first reversing roller pair 6 (Yasumoto) and the second reversing roller pair 32A-B (Yamazaki) with respect to the widthwise direction (¶84 – Yamazaki).
Claim(s) 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yasumoto in view of Inoue and Shiokawa as applied to claim 14 above and further in view of Kawahara et al. (JP 2016110037 A, hereinafter Kawahara).
As to claim 25, Yasumoto teaches a fixing portion 68 configured to fix the image to the sheet.
Yasumoto as modified does not explicitly teach
a first casing installed on an installation surface, the first casing including (1) the image forming portion, (2) the second conveying roller pair, and (3) the second moving portion; and
a second casing which is connected to the first casing and which is installed on the installation surface, the second casing including (1) the first conveying roller pair, (2) the first moving portion, and (3) the fixing portion.
Kawahara teaches an image forming apparatus comprising a first casing 1 installed on an installation surface (the installation surface is not positively recited as part of the claimed apparatus; accordingly, the installation surface may be a floor), the first casing including (1) an image forming portion (comprising a photosensitive drum 12 - ¶8); and
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a second casing 2 which is connected to the first casing (see fig. 5) and which is installed on the installation surface, the second casing including (3) a fixing portion 8, and a sheet switch-back portion SSBP (fig. 1 above),
wherein the spacing between the casings is adjustable, via at least a pin 3, according to a length of paper (¶21-22).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of Yasumoto as modified to have first and second casings, the second casing including the fixing portion and the sheet switch-back portion, wherein the spacing between the casings is adjustable, via at least a pin, according to a length of paper, as taught by Kawahara, so as to prevent/reduce poor image transfer (¶4-5, Kawahara).
Yasumoto as modified teaches a first casing 1 (Kawahara) installed on an installation surface (e.g., a floor), the first casing including (1) the image forming portion, (2) the second conveying roller pair (of Yasumoto), and (3) the second moving portion (of Inoue); and
a second casing 2 (Kawahara) which is connected to the first casing (with at least the pin 3 of Kawahara – see fig. 1 of Kawahara) and which is installed on the installation surface, the second casing including (1) the first conveying roller pair (of Yasumoto), (2) the first moving portion (of Yasumoto), and (3) the fixing portion (as taught by Kawahara).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the prior art rejections have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) for rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUBEN C PARCO JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1968. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Stephen Meier can be reached at 571-272-2149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/R.C.P./Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/STEPHEN D MEIER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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