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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 05 March 2024.
Claims 1-11 are under examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05 March 2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Oshima et al. (US Publication 2014/0132984).
With respect to claim 1 and 11, Oshima teaches An information processing system comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor receives a request to register a transmission destination of data by using any of a plurality of network interfaces, (registration requesting data is received. That is, firstly, the controller 2a specifies a network interface that has received the registration requesting data (S101), Paragraph 21) and performs registration processing for registering a network interface used for reception of a request to register a specific transmission destination among the plurality of network interfaces as a network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination. (the controller 2a (saving unit) saves, in a database stored in the hard disk 2c, the host name (identification information) of the user terminal 4 which has transmitted the registration requesting data, and interface information (hereinafter represented as "IF information") indicating the network interface specified in S101,Paragraph 21. he controller 2a (transmitter) transmits the print completion notification data (information) from a network interface indicated by the read IF information to the user terminal 4 which has transmitted the print data (S204), paragraph 25)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness
Claims 2-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Oshima et al. (US Publication 2014/0132984) in view of Ota et al. (US Publication 2018/0278516).
With respect to claim 2, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor performs the registration processing when an instruction to perform the registration processing is given, and performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing is given.
Ota teaches wherein the at least one processor performs the registration processing when an instruction to perform the registration processing is given, and performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing is given. (the routing destination determiner 111 determines whether the transmission destination (or routing destination) is determined in step S1302 (step S1302). If the routing destination determiner 111 determines that the transmission destination is determined in step S1302 (step S1302: YES), the routing destination determiner 111 ends a series of processes illustrated in FIG. 13. On the other hand, if the routing destination determiner 111 determines that the transmission destination is not determined in step S1302 (step S1302: NO), the routing destination determiner 111 executes the routing destination determination process based on various types of routing settings (see FIG. 14) to determine the transmission destination of the communication data (step S1303), paragraph 87)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 3, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a network interface selected by a user in the request to register the specific transmission destination among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination.
Ota teaches wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a network interface selected by a user in the request to register the specific transmission destination among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination. (setting screens of an address book in the MFP 100. When a user is to register address information in an address book to be used by the application unit 130, each of the setting screens of address book (hereinafter, address book setting screen) illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B is displayed on a display of an apparatus (e.g., MFP 100, a network device connected to the MFP 100) where the registration is to be performed. In example cases illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B, the address book setting screen includes, for example, data items of “registration number,” “name,” “group,” “folder,” “interface,” and “nexthop,” to which values can be registered. Then, the address information set in the address book setting screen is registered in an address book application, and also in the application routing setting table 122 (each user) as the application routing setting information.), paragraph 80)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 4, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a predetermined network interface among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination.
Ota teaches wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a predetermined network interface among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination. (setting screens of an address book in the MFP 100. When a user is to register address information in an address book to be used by the application unit 130, each of the setting screens of address book (hereinafter, address book setting screen) illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B is displayed on a display of an apparatus (e.g., MFP 100, a network device connected to the MFP 100) where the registration is to be performed. In example cases illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B, the address book setting screen includes, for example, data items of “registration number,” “name,” “group,” “folder,” “interface,” and “nexthop,” to which values can be registered. Then, the address information set in the address book setting screen is registered in an address book application, and also in the application routing setting table 122 (each user) as the application routing setting information.), paragraph 80)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 5, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor identifies a protocol to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination, performs the registration processing when the protocol is a first protocol, and performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when the protocol is a second protocol different from the first protocol.
Ota teaches wherein the at least one processor identifies a protocol to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination, performs the registration processing when the protocol is a first protocol, and performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when the protocol is a second protocol different from the first protocol. (the transport routing setting information “1” sets “192.168.10.11/32” in the “remote IP address,” “445/tcp” in the “port,” “A” in the “interface,” and an IP address (192.168.1.1) of the router R_A in the “nexthop.” The “A” indicates the transmission/reception unit 101 (i.e., network system Net_A). Therefore, the routing destination determiner 111 can determine the network system Net_A as the network and the router R_A as the next hop, which are used as the routing destination of the communication data based on the transport routing setting information “1”, paragraph 68)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 6, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a network interface selected by a user in the request to register the specific transmission destination among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination.
Ota teaches wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a network interface selected by a user in the request to register the specific transmission destination among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination. (The input device 205 is used when an operator (e.g., network administrator) performs various kinds of settings (e.g., network settings) to the MFP 100. For example, the input device 205 may be implemented by a keyboard, a mouse, and a touch panel. The display 206 displays various display screens (e.g., network setting screen), and may be implemented, for example, by a liquid crystal display (LCD). The communication I/F 207 is an interface to connect the MFP 100 with each of the network systems Net_A, Net_B and Net_C to perform communication with other information processing apparatuses, paragraph 40)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 7, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a predetermined network interface among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination.
Ota teaches wherein the second registration processing is processing for registering a predetermined network interface among the plurality of network interfaces as the network interface to be used for transmission of data to the specific transmission destination. (the transport routing setting information “1” sets “192.168.10.11/32” in the “remote IP address,” “445/tcp” in the “port,” “A” in the “interface,” and an IP address (192.168.1.1) of the router R_A in the “nexthop.” The “A” indicates the transmission/reception unit 101 (i.e., network system Net_A). Therefore, the routing destination determiner 111 can determine the network system Net_A as the network and the router R_A as the next hop, which are used as the routing destination of the communication data based on the transport routing setting information “1”, paragraph 68)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 9, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor receives a request to create a group of the transmission destination by using any of the plurality of network interfaces, and registers a network interface used in reception of a request to create a particular group among the plurality of network interfaces in association with the particular group.
Ota teaches wherein the at least one processor receives a request to create a group of the transmission destination by using any of the plurality of network interfaces, and registers a network interface used in reception of a request to create a particular group among the plurality of network interfaces in association with the particular group. (an application routing setting table 122 storing information of each group. The application routing setting table 122 is set with application routing setting information related to the routing destination of the communication data for each group included in one or more address books used by the application unit 130. In an example case of FIG. 8, the application routing setting table 122 is set with four application routing setting information indicated by the numbers of 1 to 4, in which each application routing setting information includes, for example, “name,” “interface,” and “nexthop” as data items, paragraph 64)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
With respect to claim 10, Oshima doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor transmits data to the transmission destination included in the particular group by using the network interface registered in association with the particular group.
Ota teaches wherein the at least one processor transmits data to the transmission destination included in the particular group by using the network interface registered in association with the particular group. (the routing destination determiner 111 can determine the network system Net_C as the network and router R_C as the next hop, which are used as the routing destination of the communication data with respect to the user belonging to the user group “Guest” based on the application routing setting information “3”, paragraph 65)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Oshima with performs a second registration processing different from the registration processing when an instruction to perform the second registration processing as taught by Ota. The motivation for combining Oshima and Ota is to be able to i reduce a management cost of the image forming apparatuses and save an installing space of the image forming apparatuses.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Nakamura et al. (US Publication 2019/0182708) discloses transmitting all the second packets included in the second packet group to the terminal. A comparison between the first time periods with a second time period is performed for adding a third multiple packets to the first packet group. The addition of the third multiple packets to the first packet group are performed, when it is detected that the first time period is longer than the second time period by the comparison.
Morita et al. (US Publication 2013/0308158) discloses A control unit performs a control to avoid registering folder information corresponding to a transmission protocol set to be disabled from a set of transmission protocols by the registration unit. A management unit manages permission or prohibition for protocols.
Any inquiry concerning this communication from the examiner should be directed to ABDULLAHI AHMED whose telephone number is (571) 270-3652. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khalid Kassim can be reached on 571-270-3370. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDULLAHI AHMED/Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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