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
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.
(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 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated under a broadest reasonable interpretation by Kobana (US 20200319831).
Referring to claim 9:
Kobana discloses a communication control system (two embodiment) that controls data communication in an image processing apparatus (MFP 101) capable of acquiring an access token for accessing an external server from an authorization server, the communication control system comprising:
one or a plurality of processors (CPU 201) configured to:
receive an execution request for processing of transmitting data to the external server, and image data of a transmission target from another image processing apparatus (par. 76-77, 79, 99, 126, 134; Figs 12-15: S1205 / S1305; and Figs. 18-22: S1605 / S1805);
acquire an access token used for accessing the external server from an authorization server (105) based on an authentication setting of the image processing apparatus in response to the execution request (par. 83-84, 105, 130, 135; Figs 12-15: S1208-S1209 / S1313-S1314; and Figs. 18-22: S1614-S1615 / S1814-S1815); and
access the external server in response to the execution request by using the acquired access token, and transmit the image data, in a form attached to an email, to the external server (par. 96, 115, 132, 135; Figs 12-15: S1228 / S1327; and Figs. 18-22: S1629 / S1828).
Referring to claim 10:
This claim is the product or article of manufacture (i.e., a non-transitory computer readable medium) storing a program controlling a computer (or processor) provided in an image processing apparatus (or MFP) capable of acquiring an access token for accessing an external server from an authorization server, the program causing the computer to implement the corresponding functions as set forth in claim 9. Kobana discloses such a product for this purpose (see par. 140). Therefore, this claim is rejected based on the disclosure in Kobana as indicated above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 are allowed. The prior art searched and of record neither anticipates nor suggests, in the claimed combinations, the configuration of a slave machine transmitting an execution request for processing of transmitting data to an external server, and image data of a transmission target to the image processing apparatus set as a master machine, and the image processing apparatus set as the master machine acquiring an access token for accessing the external server from an authorization server based on an authentication setting performed for the authorization server in advance, and accessing the external server by using the access token, and a function of, in a case where the execution request and the image data are received from the image processing apparatus set as the slave machine, acquiring the access token for accessing the external server from the authorization server based on the authentication setting of the image processing apparatus set as the master machine, accessing the external server by using the access token, and transmitting the image data, in a form attached to an email, to the external server.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed (i.e., a descriptive title that distinguishes the invention and is not a generic or general description). The new title should take into account any amendments to the claims to best indicate the claimed invention.
The title must be as short and specific as possible (see 37 CFR 1.72(a)). Applicant should distill a description of the claimed invention into as few words as possible to capture the essence of the claimed invention. Rather than reciting statutory categories (apparatus, method, product) and some generic descriptor (e.g., information processing), a title that is specific, but characterizes the essence or key aspect(s) of the claimed invention, should be submitted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/30/23 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the IDS has been considered by the examiner.
Applicant has provided an explanation of relevance of cited document JP 2012-100120 A on page 1 of the specification.
Cited Art
The prior art and other references made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sako (US 12008283 B2) discloses MFP 101 registered in a cloud printing service (CPS) can be used via the CPS for printing (ostensibly for scanning too). After successful registration in the CPS, an access token for accessing a resource in a user tenant on the cloud platform A and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information used to communicate with the CPS are stored in a setting DB 305. A cloud print printing control unit 302 provides the function of receiving a print job from the cloud print service using the access token and the URL information stored in the setting DB 305.
Terao (US 20250247487 A1) discloses an image processing apparatus including a scanner and a storage device configured to save one or more jobs receives, from an information processing apparatus, a scan job including a scan setting, a transmission destination of image data to be obtained in a reading process by the scanner based on the scan setting, and a token acquired from an authorization server to access the transmission destination, saves the received scan job in the storage device, identifies, based on a user operation via an operation unit of the image processing apparatus, a target scan job from the storage device, and executes a transmission process based on image data obtained by executing the identified scan job and a token and a transmission destination included in the identified scan job.
Ishimura (JP 2024178752 A) discloses an information processing device, in a case in which information used for acquiring the token information between a device performing data communication and other terminals corresponding to an authorization server is delivered, extracts identification information of a user from an ID token when receiving login of the user, and acquiring an access token and the ID token issued from an authorization server in response to a request from an external device, compares identification information on a user acquired when receiving the login with identification information on the user extracted from the ID token, and permits access based on the access token when they coincide with each other.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Scott Rogers whose telephone number is 571-272-7467. The examiner can normally be reached 8 am to 7 pm flex.
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/Scott A Rogers/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
25 July 2026
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