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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 recites the limitation “the printing controller is configured to acquire, from the plurality of printing devices for which the first wireless communication connection is established, information on a service of the printing device using the first wireless communication connection, and select, based on the acquired information, the printing device to which the print job is to be transmitted.” (Emphasis added) This limitation appears to indicate that the print job is transmitted to one printing device. However, claim 1, from which claim 2 depends, recites “a printing controller configured to perform control to distribute and transmit a print job to the plurality of printing devices using the first wireless communication connection.” (Emphasis added) The limitation in claim 1, as opposed to the limitation in claim 2, appears to indicate that the print job is transmitted to a plurality of printing devices.
Claim 5, which also depends from claim 1, recites the limitation “the printing controller is configured to select, based on the distance information, the printing device to which the print job is to be transmitted.” (Emphasis added) As with the above limitation from claim 2, this limitation appears to indicate that the print job is transmitted to one printing device, contrary to the above limitation from claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2021/0373831 A1 (hereinafter “Yu”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2012/0008166 A1 (hereinafter “Noto”).
Regarding claim 1, Yu discloses a terminal device (wireless device 102 may be, for example, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, or any other suitable end point device capable of rendering media content (paragraph [0042])) comprising:
- a first connection processor configured to search for a printing device conforming to a neighbor awareness network (NAN) standard, and to establish first wireless communication connection with the printing device conforming to the NAN standard (wireless device processor may start a BLE scan to detect printer devices within its vicinity that are configured with BLE advertisement capability (paragraph [0073]); wireless device processor may detect a user input selecting a printer device for a list of discovered printer devices (paragraph [0076]); wireless device processor may determine whether the selected printer device supports a wireless direct communication link (paragraph [0078]); direct wireless communication links may be setup using a variety of different device-to-device wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi neighbor awareness network (NAN) (paragraph [0038]); in response to determining that the selected printer device supports a wireless direct communication link, the wireless device processor may exchange information with the selected printer device over the BLE connection to setup the direct communication link, and the wireless device processor may setup the direct communication link with the selected printer device (paragraph [0079])); and
- a printing controller configured to perform control to distribute and transmit a print job to the printing device using the first wireless communication connection (wireless device processor may send a print job to the selected printer device using the established direction communication link (paragraph [0083])).
Yu does not expressly disclose searching for and establishing connection with a plurality of printing devices to distribute and transmit the print job.
Noto discloses a computer that is connected to a plurality of printers via a wired or wireless network, the computer performing distributed printing including various modes, such as a mode for causing the plurality of printers to print the same image, and a mode for allocating individual ones of a plurality of pages included in a file targeted for printing to each of the plurality of printers (paragraph [0024]). The computer transmits an acquisition request for acquiring an ID to each of the printers (paragraph [0030]), along with characteristic information for each printer (paragraph [0031]). A user can designate any ones of the printers the user desires as those to be used for printing (either one or a plurality) (paragraph [0035]). In combination with Yu, a plurality of printers conforming to the NAN standard may be selected for executing a distributed print job. Noto provides added versatility to the teaching of Yu in that copies of a print job can be printed by each of a plurality of printers, thereby saving time as opposed to printing multiple copies at a single printer. Also, users can easily and appropriately select desired printing apparatuses by taking into account priorities of the respective printing apparatuses (paragraph [0009]), thereby improving overall image quality of the print job. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the teaching of Yu by providing for the selection of a plurality of printing apparatuses for executing a print job, as taught by Noto.
Regarding claim 2, Yu discloses wherein the printing controller is configured to acquire, from the plurality of printing devices for which the first wireless communication connection is established, information on a service of the printing device using the first wireless communication connection, and select, based on the acquired information, the printing device to which the print job is to be transmitted (wireless device processor may receive BLE advertisements from capable printer devices in proximity to the wireless device, the received BLE advertisements may include printer capability information (paragraph [0074]); wireless device processor may display a list of discovered printer devices, which may include printer capabilities (paragraph [0075]); wireless device processor may detect a user input selecting a printer device from the list of discovered printer devices (paragraph [0076])).
Regarding claim 3, Yu discloses wherein the first connection processor is configured to search for the plurality of printing devices capable of providing a service satisfying a specific condition by broadcasting an inquiry about a service conforming to the NAN standard (device discovery component operations may include performing a scanning procedure that involves listening to BLE advertisement channels set forth by the Bluetooth specification to receive advertising packets for discovering nearby printers, and may further include sending a scan request message to an external device, and to receive a scan response message from the external device, in order to receive advertisement data beyond that which can fit into one advertising packet, the received BLE advertisement including service capabilities for one or more printers (paragraph [0054]); as set forth above, direct wireless communication links may be setup using a variety of different device-to-device wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi neighbor awareness network (NAN) (paragraph [0038])).
Regarding claim 4, Yu further comprises:
- a distance information acquisition unit configured to acquire, for each of the plurality of printing devices, distance information indicating a distance between the terminal device and the printing device measured conforming to the NAN standard (list of discovered printer devices may include the printer device’s relative distance from the wireless device (paragraph [0075])); and
- a display controller configured to perform control to display the distance information of each of the plurality of printing devices (wireless device processor may display the list of discovered printer devices (paragraph [0075]), the list including relative distance information as set forth above).
Regarding claim 5, Yu further comprises:
- a distance information acquisition unit configured to acquire, for each of the plurality of printing devices, distance information indicating a distance between the terminal device and the printing device measured conforming to the NAN standard (list of discovered printer devices may include the printer device’s relative distance from the wireless device (paragraph [0075])), wherein
- the printing controller is configured to select, based on the distance information, the printing device to which the print job is to be transmitted (wireless device processor may detect a user input selecting a printer device from the list of discovered printer devices (paragraph [0076]), the list including relative distance information as set forth above).
Regarding claim 6, Yu further comprises:
- a second connection processor configured to establish second wireless communication connection with the plurality of printing devices via an access point (network interfaces may further include at least one WLAN unit that may allow the wireless communication device to connect to a wireless access point (paragraph [0048])), wherein
- the printing controller is configured to perform control to distribute and transmit the print job to the plurality of printing devices using the first wireless communication connection or the second wireless communication connection (in response to determining that the selected printer device supports a wireless direct communication link, the wireless device processor may exchange information with the selected printer device over the BLE connection to setup the direct communication link (paragraph [0079]); in response to determining that the selected printer device does not support a wireless direct communication link, the wireless device processor may determine whether the selected printer device is connected to a WLAN associated with the wireless device (paragraphs [0080]-[0081]), and in response to determining that the wireless device processor is connected to a WLAN associated with the wireless device, the wireless processor may send a print job associated with the triggered mobile print service to the selected printer device over the identified WLAN (paragraph [0083])).
Regarding claim 7, Yu discloses wherein
- when the second wireless communication connection with the plurality of printing devices is established, the printing controller performs control to distribute and transmit the print job to the plurality of printing devices using the second wireless communication connection (as set forth above, in response to determining that the wireless device processor is connected to a WLAN associated with the wireless device, the wireless processor may send a print job associated with the triggered mobile print service to the selected printer device over the identified WLAN (paragraph [0083])).
Regarding claims 8 and 9, Yu discloses a method for controlling a terminal device (wireless device 102 may be, for example, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, or any other suitable end point device capable of rendering media content (paragraph [0042])), the method comprising:
- searching for a printing device conforming to a NAN standard, and establishing first wireless communication connection with the printing device conforming to the NAN standard (wireless device processor may start a BLE scan to detect printer devices within its vicinity that are configured with BLE advertisement capability (paragraph [0073]); wireless device processor may detect a user input selecting a printer device for a list of discovered printer devices (paragraph [0076]); wireless device processor may determine whether the selected printer device supports a wireless direct communication link (paragraph [0078]); direct wireless communication links may be setup using a variety of different device-to-device wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi neighbor awareness network (NAN) (paragraph [0038]); in response to determining that the selected printer device supports a wireless direct communication link, the wireless device processor may exchange information with the selected printer device over the BLE connection to setup the direct communication link, and the wireless device processor may setup the direct communication link with the selected printer device (paragraph [0079])); and
- performing control to distribute and transmit a print job to the printing device using the first wireless communication connection (wireless device processor may send a print job to the selected printer device using the established direction communication link (paragraph [0083])).
Yu further discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program, the program causing a computer to execute first connection processing and printing control corresponding to the above steps of claim 8 (non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, FLASH memory, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or noy other medium that may be used to store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a computer (paragraph [0096])).
Yu does not expressly disclose searching for and establishing connection with a plurality of printing devices to distribute and transmit the print job.
As set forth above regarding claim 1, Noto discloses a computer that is connected to a plurality of printers via a wired or wireless network, the computer performing distributed printing including various modes, such as a mode for causing the plurality of printers to print the same image, and a mode for allocating individual ones of a plurality of pages included in a file targeted for printing to each of the plurality of printers (paragraph [0024]). The computer transmits an acquisition request for acquiring an ID to each of the printers (paragraph [0030]), along with characteristic information for each printer (paragraph [0031]). A user can designate any ones of the printers the user desires as those to be used for printing (either one or a plurality) (paragraph [0035]). In combination with Yu, a plurality of printers conforming to the NAN standard may be selected for executing a distributed print job. Noto provides added versatility to the teaching of Yu in that copies of a print job can be printed by each of a plurality of printers, thereby saving time as opposed to printing multiple copies at a single printer. Also, users can easily and appropriately select desired printing apparatuses by taking into account priorities of the respective printing apparatuses (paragraph [0009]), thereby improving overall image quality of the print job. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the teaching of Yu by providing for the selection of a plurality of printing apparatuses for executing a print job, as taught by Noto.
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS D LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-7436. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30AM-5:00PM.
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/THOMAS D LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683