DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This is an initial office action in response to communication(s) filed on October 31, 2023.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 9-10, 12 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Braun et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2015/0186759 A1, hereinafter as “Braun”).
With regard to claim 1, the claim is drawn to a method (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5-7 and etc.), comprising:
receiving a first document at a thermal printer (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5, 6, para. 94 and etc., disclose that “[0094] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow diagram generally showing one embodiment of an overview process for employing a printer to print a document from its native file format. Process 600 may begin, after a start block, at block 602, where a document (or at least a portion of the document) may be provided to a printer…”, and as illustrated in fig. 5, could be from a remote computer or a portable storage device);
determining the first document has a first format from a plurality of formats (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5, 6, para. 94 and etc., disclose that “[0094] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow diagram generally showing one embodiment of an overview process for employing a printer to print a document from its native file format. Process 600 may begin, after a start block, at block 602, where a document (or at least a portion of the document) may be provided to a printer…”, and as illustrated in fig. 5, could be from a remote computer or a portable storage device);
selecting, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from a plurality of interpreters (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details),
the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing (see Braun, i.e. para. 104, fig. 6 and etc., disclose that “[0104] Process 600 may proceed next to block 608, where at least one page of the document may be printed based on the image representation. In some embodiment, the image representation may be provided to a print engine for execution of the physical printing of the document.”);
receiving a second document at the thermal printer (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5, 6, para. 94 and etc., disclose that “[0094] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow diagram generally showing one embodiment of an overview process for employing a printer to print a document from its native file format. Process 600 may begin, after a start block, at block 602, where a document (or at least a portion of the document) may be provided to a printer…”, and as illustrated in fig. 5, could be from a remote computer or a portable storage device);
determining the second document has a second format of the plurality of possible formats (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details);
selecting, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details); and
printing the first document and the second document (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details);
With regard to claim 9, the claim is drawn to the method of claim 1, wherein the determining is based at least in part upon parsing metadata associated with the first document and the second document, respectively (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “[0085] Applications 420 may include computer executable instructions, which may be loaded into mass memory and run on operating system 406. Applications 420 may include interpreters 422, graphics rendering engine 430, and print engine driver 432. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”).
With regard to claim 10, the claim is drawn to the method of claim 9, wherein the metadata is contained within a header of a packet which contains at least a portion of the first document or the second document, respectively (see Braun, i.e. in para. 83 and etc., disclose that “[0083] Memory 404 further includes one or more data storage 410, which can be utilized by printing device 400 to store, among other things, applications 420 and/or other data. For example, data storage 410 may also be employed to store information that describes various capabilities of printing device 400. The information may then be provided to another device based on any of a variety of events, including being sent as part of a header during a communication, sent upon request, or the like”).
With regard to claim 12, the claim is drawn to a thermal printer (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 1, 4, para. 34 and etc., disclose the printing device 400, and “inkless printers such as thermal printers and UV printer…”) , comprising:
memory storing a plurality of interpreters (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 4 and etc., disclose the memory 404, which comprises applications 420, which further comprises interpreter 424, other interpreter 426 and etc., also see details in para. 85 and etc.);
a communication interface (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 4, disclose the network interface 440); and
a processing device (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 4, processor 402) programmed to:
receive a first document from a host via the communication interface (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5, 6, para. 94 and etc., disclose that “[0094] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow diagram generally showing one embodiment of an overview process for employing a printer to print a document from its native file format. Process 600 may begin, after a start block, at block 602, where a document (or at least a portion of the document) may be provided to a printer…”, and as illustrated in fig. 5, could be from a remote computer or a portable storage device);
determine the first document has a first format from a plurality of possible formats (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 6, para. 98 and etc., disclose that “[0098] The page representations may be determined directly from the document independent of a page description language. So, in the various embodiments, the page representations may be generated based on the native file format of the document without the need to first convert the document into a page description language (e.g., printer command language, post script, XML paper specification, or the like) or other intermediate format. In various embodiments, a remote computer may not be necessary to convert the document into a generalized printing format (also referred to a page description language or page description data stream)”);
select, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in memory, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details);
print the first document using the first interpreter (see Braun, i.e. para. 104, fig. 6 and etc., disclose that “[0104] Process 600 may proceed next to block 608, where at least one page of the document may be printed based on the image representation. In some embodiment, the image representation may be provided to a print engine for execution of the physical printing of the document.”);
receive a second document from the host via the communication interface (see Braun, i.e. in fig. 5, 6, para. 94 and etc., disclose that “[0094] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow diagram generally showing one embodiment of an overview process for employing a printer to print a document from its native file format. Process 600 may begin, after a start block, at block 602, where a document (or at least a portion of the document) may be provided to a printer…”, and as illustrated in fig. 5, could be from a remote computer or a portable storage device);
determine the second document has a second format from the plurality of possible formats (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details);
select, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in the memory, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details); and
print the second document using the second interpreter (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “…. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”; also see fig. 7, step. 702-706 and etc.; also see para. 98, fig. 6 and etc. for additional details);
With regard to claim 17, the claim is drawn to the thermal printer of claim 12, wherein the processing device is programmed to determine the first format and the second format based at least in part upon parsing metadata associated with the first document and the second document, respectively (see Braun, i.e. in para. 85 and etc., disclose that “[0085] Applications 420 may include computer executable instructions, which may be loaded into mass memory and run on operating system 406. Applications 420 may include interpreters 422, graphics rendering engine 430, and print engine driver 432. Interpreters 422 may include document interpreter engine 424 and other interpreter engines 426. Document interpreter engine 424 may be configured to determine page representations of each requested page of a document to be printed. In various embodiments, document interpreter engine 424 may convert one or more pages from documents in formats, such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, or .pptx, into separate page representations that each includes a plurality of graphics primitives. Other interpreter engines 426 may include engines configured to convert files in a page description language into page representations. Graphics rendering engine 430 may be configured to determine image representations of each page representation. And print engine may be configured to communicate with other printing hardware and/or software (e.g., printing assembly 452) to facilitate printing of the determined image representations”).
With regard to claim 18, the claim is drawn to the thermal printer of claim 17, wherein the metadata is contained within a header of a packet which contains at least a portion of the first document or the second document, respectively (see Braun, i.e. in para. 83 and etc., disclose that “[0083] Memory 404 further includes one or more data storage 410, which can be utilized by printing device 400 to store, among other things, applications 420 and/or other data. For example, data storage 410 may also be employed to store information that describes various capabilities of printing device 400. The information may then be provided to another device based on any of a variety of events, including being sent as part of a header during a communication, sent upon request, or the like”).
With regard to claim 19, the claim is drawn to the thermal printer of claim 12, wherein the thermal printer is portable (see Braun, i.e. para. 34, disclose the thermal printer, and in fig. 1, printing device 110 could be “portable”).
With regard to claim 20, the claim is drawn to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to: receive a first document from a host via a communication interface; determine the first document has a first format from a plurality of possible formats; select, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from a plurality of interpreters in memory, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing; print the first document using the first interpreter; receive a second document from the host via the communication interface; determine the second document has a second format from the plurality of possible formats; select, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in the memory, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing; and print the second document using the second interpreter (instant claim is similarly rejected as discussions set forth in claims 1 and 12 set for above, also incorporated by reference herein; in addition, in Braun, i.e. in Braun, i.e. in para. 31, discloses that “[0031] Devices that may operate as remote computers 102-105 may include various computing devices that typically connect to a network or other computing device using a wired and/or wireless communications medium. Remote computers may include portable and/or non-portable computers. In some embodiments, remote computers may include client computers, server computers, or the like. Examples of remote computers 102-105 may include, but are not limited to, desktop computers (e.g., remote computer 102), personal computers, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable electronic devices, network PCs, laptop computers (e.g., remote computer 103), smart phones (e.g., remote computer 104), tablet computers (e.g., remote computer 105), cellular telephones, display pagers, radio frequency (RF) devices, infrared (IR) devices, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, wearable computing devices, entertainment/home media systems (e.g., televisions, gaming consoles, audio equipment, or the like), household devices (e.g., thermostats, refrigerators, home security systems, or the like), multimedia navigation systems, automotive communications and entertainment systems, integrated devices combining functionality of one or more of the preceding devices, or the like. As such, remote computers 102-105 may include computers with a wide range of capabilities and features…”).
Allowable Subject Matter
With regard to Claims 2-8, 11 and 13-16, claims are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims and overcoming the corresponding rejections and/or objection (if any) set forth in the Office Action above.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With regard to claim 2, the closest prior arts of record, Braun, do not disclose or suggest, among the other limitations, the additional required limitation of “…the method of claim 1, wherein the determining is based at least in part upon which of a plurality of ports of the thermal printer receives the first document and the second document, respectively”. These additional features in combination with all the other features required in the claimed invention, are neither taught nor suggested by Braun.
With regard to claims 3-8, the claims are depending directly or indirectly from the independent Claim 2, each encompasses the required limitations recited in the independent claim discussed above.
With regard to claim 11, the closest prior arts of record, Braun, do not disclose or suggest, among the other limitations, the additional required limitation of “…the method of claim 9, wherein a first port is provided for receiving data in a predetermined format, and a second port is provided for receiving data which requires parsing of metadata”. These additional features in combination with all the other features required in the claimed invention, are neither taught nor suggested by Braun.
With regard to claim 13, the closest prior arts of record, Braun, do not disclose or suggest, among the other limitations, the additional required limitation of “…the thermal printer of claim 12, wherein the communication interface includes a plurality of ports, and the processing device is programmed to determine the first format and the second format based at least in part upon which of the plurality of ports of the communication interface receives the first document and the second document, respectively”. These additional features in combination with all the other features required in the claimed invention, are neither taught nor suggested by Braun.
With regard to claims 14-16, the claims are depending directly or indirectly from the independent Claim 13, each encompasses the required limitations recited in the independent claim discussed above.
Therefore, claims 2-8, 11 and 13-16 are objected to.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ferlitsch (U.S. Pat/Pub No. 200) disclose an invention relates to systems and methods for rendering a document in a native format at a printer device using a host service for rendering into printer ready data.
The Art Unit (or Workgroup) location of your application in the USPTO has changed. To aid in correlating any papers for this application, all further correspondence regarding this application should be directed to Art Unit 2681.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jacky X. Zheng whose telephone number is (571) 270-1122. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, alt. Friday Off.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Akwasi Sarpong can be reached on (571) 272-3438. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JACKY X ZHENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681