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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of CLAIMS 1-3 and 7 in the reply filed on 20 November 2025 is acknowledged. Claims 4-6 and 8-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected INVENTION, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy of Japan Application No. 2022-191183 was received on 04 December 2023 as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 25 October 2023 have been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 25 October 2023 are accepted.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 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.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Inoue (US PGPub 2006/0221369 A1).
With regard to Claim 1, Inoue discloses an image forming apparatus (¶0002) comprising:
an image forming engine configured to form on an image formation medium an image represented by image data externally obtained (¶0004, 0011; 0126), by a borderless image forming operation or a bordered image forming operation, the borderless image forming operation being an operation to form the image over an entire image forming target area on the image formation medium (Fig. 3), the bordered image forming operation being an operation to form the image on the image formation medium with a margin formed at a periphery portion of the image forming target area (Fig. 3); and
a controller (Fig. 1; ¶0060); configured to:
when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation is to be performed (¶0073-0078; Fig. 1), select one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation (Figs. 2-3), based on a status of the image forming apparatus (Fig. 2) or a content of the image data (Fig. 1; ¶0073-0078), or based on the status of the image forming apparatus and the content of the image data (¶0062-0073); and
cause the image forming engine to perform the selected one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation (¶0068-0073; ¶0135).
With regard to Claim 2, Inoue further discloses a memory configured to store setting information that indicates which of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation is to be performed (Fig. 2; ¶0068; ¶0135),
wherein the controller is further configured to select one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, based at least on which, of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, is indicated by the setting information as the status of the image forming apparatus (Fig. 2; ¶0068-0073, 0079, 0093-0098; 0135).
With regard to Claim 7, Inoue further discloses wherein the borderless image forming operation is image formation to be performed over an area that straddles and covers the image forming target area (¶0070).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The primary reasons for allowability for Claim 3 is that applicants claimed invention includes an image forming apparatus wherein the image data contains size indicating data that indicates a size of the image forming target area in each of a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction on the image formation medium, wherein the image forming apparatus having a sheet medium storage configured to accommodate a roll body of a long sheet medium wound in a roll shape;
a conveyor configured to convey the sheet medium from the sheet medium storage to the image forming engine along the second direction; and a cutter configured to cut, along the first direction, the sheet medium with the image formed thereon by the image forming engine, wherein the controller is further configured to control the cutter to cut the sheet medium in such a manner that a length of a sheet medium cut out from the long sheet medium is the size in the second direction that is indicated by the size indicating data, and wherein the controller is further configured to select one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, based at least on the size of the image forming target area in the first direction that is indicated by the size indicating data. It is this limitation, expressed in the claim combination not found, taught, or suggested in the prior art that makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT A. RICHMOND whose telephone number is (313)446-6547. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9-6:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas Rodriguez can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SCOTT A RICHMOND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853