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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO-1449. These IDS have been considered.
Priority
3. Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawings
4. The examiner contends that the drawings submitted on 08/28/2023 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Election/Restrictions
5. Applicant’s election without traverse of invention I disclosed in claims 1-15 in the reply filed on 09/17/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
6. 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 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.
7. 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.
8. Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Koga et al. (US Pub. Nº 2007/0048058).
9. Regarding independent claim 1: Koga et al. disclosed a printing apparatus (Fig. 1), comprising:
a carriage (Fig. 3, reference 13) on which a printing head is mounted (Fig. 5, reference 12) and that can move reciprocally in a first direction ([0104], lines 3-4);
a motor configured to generate driving force ([0118], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 8, reference 42);
a driving shaft extending in the first direction and driven to rotate by the driving force ([0119], lines 1-3; also see Fig. 9, the shaft of motor 42, to which pinion 43a is fixed);
a plurality of driving units driven by the driving force transmitted through the driving shaft ([0119], line 3; also see Fig. 9, references 43b, 43c and 43d);
a switching unit configured to switch a transmission destination of the driving force in the plurality of driving units in conjunction with the driving shaft ([0128], lines 1-3; also see Fig. 10, reference 100); and
a contact unit (Fig. 30 reference 104) configured to rotate around a rotatably supporting unit ([0133], line 1; also see Fig. 30, reference 103. 104 is rotatable around 103 in the direction D) so as to be in a contact position in which contact with the carriage is made ([0141], lines 1-2) or a non-contact position in which the contact with the carriage is not made ([0140], lines 1-2) and to move with the carriage in the contact position ([0141], lines 2-3), wherein
the switching unit switches the transmission destination of the driving force by a movement unit moved by the movement of the contact unit ([0141], lines 1-8; when pressed by the carriage 13, the assembly (104, 105 and 102) as a movement unit moves to switch the transmission destination of the driving force).
10. Regarding claim 2: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit includes a planetary gear (Fig. 26, reference 102) and a planetary arm (see annotated Fig. 26 below for the planetary arm), and the planetary gear pivots about the driving shaft as a center axis by the planetary arm (Fig. 26, reference 103).
[AltContent: textbox (Planetary arm)][AltContent: arrow]
PNG
media_image1.png
240
416
media_image1.png
Greyscale
11. Regarding claim 3: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a supporting shaft corresponding to each of the plurality of driving units (Fig. 26, the shafts corresponding to the respective driving units 113, 114, 115), wherein the planetary gear is engaged with each of a plurality of the supporting shafts and transmits the driving force to the driving unit corresponding to the engaged supporting shaft ([0140]-[0142]; also see Fig. 26, the planetary gear can engage with each of the driving units 113, 114, 115).
12. Regarding claim 4: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the switching unit further includes a sun gear (Fig. 26, the sun gear extending from the planetary gear 102).
13. Regarding claim 5: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a shaft hole into which the same shaft is inserted is formed in each of the planetary gear and the planetary arm (Fig. 26, shaft 103 is inserted into the shaft holes of the planetary gear 102 and the planetary arm (see annotated Fig. 26 above)), and any one of the plurality of supporting shafts is inserted into the shaft hole (see Fig. 26).
14. Regarding claim 6: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the contact unit is attached to the switching unit (Fig. 10 shows the contact unit 104 attached to the switching unit 100) and also provided in a range of a movement region of the carriage while the printing head prints an image in the first direction (Fig. 11 shows the contact unit 104 disposed in a movement region of the carriage 13 in the first direction C - E).
15. Regarding claim 7: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the rotatably supporting unit supports the contact unit and also extends in the first direction and can be rotated by the driving force (Fig. 26 shows the contact unit 104 supported by the rotatably supporting spindle 103 in the direction C – E).
16. Regarding claim 8: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the contact unit is moved in the first direction with the carriage being moved while being in contact with the contact unit ([0141], lines 1-3), and a lock portion provided to the movement unit is moved by the movement of the contact unit ([0140], line 4 and [0141], line 6; also see Fig. 11, references 111 and 112 are lock portions).
17. Regarding claim 9: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the lock portion is positioned in a first lock position in which connection with one driving unit of the plurality of driving units is made ([0140], line 4); also see Fig. 11, reference 111) or a second lock position in which connection with another driving unit of the plurality of driving units which is different from the one driving unit is made ([0141], line 6; also see Fig. 11, reference 112).
18. Regarding claim 10: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a biasing unit configured to bias the contact unit in predetermined one direction ([0137], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 10, reference 106a).
19. Regarding claim 11: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising: a conveyance roller configured to convey a printing medium along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction ([0100], lines 4-5), and in a case where the conveyance roller rotates in a forward direction of feeding the printing medium from a feeding unit to a printing unit including the printing head, the contact unit is held in a first position in which contact with the carriage cannot be made ([0140], lines 1-5).
20. Regarding claim 12: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein in a case where the conveyance roller rotates in a direction opposite to the forward direction, the contact unit is held in a second position in which the contact with the carriage can be made ([0125], lines 1-3 and [0141], lines 1-8; the conveyance rollers 20a, 20b can rotate in reverse while the carriage 13 is abutting the contact unit 104 while the gear 102 is connected to the continuous feeding gear 114 by rotating the motor 42 in the reverse direction).
21. Regarding claim 13: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising: a sliding member on which the carriage slides ([0104], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 25, reference 41; also see Fig. 26, reference 41), wherein the sliding member includes a notched portion to which the contact unit projects ([0139], line 1; also see Fig. 27, reference 109 to which the contact unit 104a projects) and a restriction member configured to hold the contact unit in the first position (Fig. 10, reference 106a), and a height of the first position is equal to or smaller than a height of the notched portion (See Fig. 8; the opening of the groove 109 to the far left (which corresponds to the first position 111 of Fig. 11) is smaller than the opening toward the middle of groove 109 (which corresponds to the second position 112 of Fig. 11)).
22. Regarding claim 14: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of driving units are a maintenance unit configured to perform maintenance ([0142], line 6; also see Fig. 26, reference 115) and a supplying unit configured to supply the printing medium ([0141], line 8; also see Fig. 26, reference 114).
23. Regarding claim 15: Koga et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the biasing unit is formed of an elastic member ([0137], line 1; also see Fig. 10, reference 106a is a spring).
Conclusion
24. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
25. U.S. Patent application publication number 2009/0035018 to Koga et al. disclosed a similar invention in Fig. 5.
26. U.S. Patent application publication number 2009/0284565 to Shinagawa et al. also disclosed a similar invention in Fig. 4.
27. Japanese Patent application publication number 2010-017993 to Ogawa also disclosed a similar invention in Fig. 8.
28. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOVI M. AMEH whose telephone number is (571)272-4578. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
29. 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.
30. 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.
31. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/YAOVI M AMEH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853