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 § 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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 14-16, 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Harada (US 2022/0197186).
Harada (…186) discloses a developing device (40) comprising: a housing (50) that stores a developer ([0028]-[0029]; and figures 2 and 3); a developer holding unit (44) that is disposed at an opening portion of the housing that faces an image holding body and that rotates while holding the developer ([0028] and figure 2); an exhaust passage through which air in the housing is discharged to outside ([0042] and [0046]); and a suction passage through which the developer that leaks out from the opening portion of the housing is sucked ([0042]-[0045]), wherein the exhaust passage and the suction passage are disposed at different positions along an axial direction of the developer holding unit (figures 4 and 5) [see Applicant’s claim 1]. The suction passage is disposed downstream of the opening portion of the housing along a rotational direction of the developer holding unit ([0039]-[0040]; and figures 2 and 4) [see Applicant’s claim 2]. The exhaust passage is disposed at an upper portion of the housing along a vertical direction (figure 4) [see Applicant’s claim 3]. The suction passage is disposed at at least both end portions of the developer holding unit along the axial direction (figures 4 and 5) [see Applicant’s claim 5]. An additional suction passage is disposed between the suction passages disposed at the both end portions of the developer holding unit along the axial direction ([0045]; and figures 4 and 5) [see Applicant’s claim 6]. The exhaust passage is disposed at positions of the developer holding unit other than positions of the suction passages along the axial direction (figure 5) [see Applicant’s claim 8]. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image holding unit (21) that holds an electrostatic latent image; and a developing unit (40) that develops the electrostatic latent image on the image holding unit, wherein the developing device is used as the developing unit ([0017]-[0018]; and figures 1 and 2) [see Applicant’s claims 14-16, 18 and 19].
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harada (US 2022/0197186) in view of Ohashi et al. (US 2017/0277079).
Harada (…186) discloses the features mentioned previously, but does not disclose the claimed capture unit. Ohashi et al. (…079) discloses an exhaust passage that includes a capture unit (57) provided at an exit portion of the exhaust passage to capture developer that leaks out through the exhaust passage ([0055]; and figure 6) [see Applicant’s claim 9]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the claimed capture unit, since as disclosed by Ohashi et al. (…079), such a capture unit prevents the leakage of developer.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 7, 10-13, 17 and 20 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.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANDRA BRASE whose telephone number is (571)272-2131. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Walter Lindsay can be reached at 571-272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SANDRA BRASE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852 August 29, 2026
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