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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/15/24 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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 11,500,596 to Ogawa.
With regard to Claim 1, Ogawa teaches an information processing apparatus (102) configured to communicate with an image processing apparatus (100), the information processing apparatus (102) comprising:
an information acquisition unit (300) configured to acquire management information of the image processing apparatus from the image processing apparatus (col. 3, lines 12-19);
an image acquisition unit (502) configured to acquire an image of a management target of the image processing apparatus captured based on the management information (col. 5, lines 23-29 and lines 39-49); and
a transmission unit (300) configured to transmit a control command related to the management target to the image processing apparatus, based on an analysis result of the image of the management target (col. 17, lines 31-35 and lines 8-13).
With regard to Claim 2, Ogawa teaches wherein the management target is a consumable good, and wherein the management information is information related to a remaining amount of the consumable good (col. 2, line 66-col. 3, line 6 and 15-25).
With regard to Claim 3, Ogawa teaches wherein further comprising an analysis unit (300) configured to analyze an image of the consumable good serving as the management target, wherein the analysis unit analyzes the remaining amount of the consumable good from the image of the consumable good, and wherein the transmission unit transmits the control command related to the consumable good to the image processing apparatus, based on an analysis result of the remaining amount of the consumable good by the analysis unit (col. 5, lines 23-29, lines 39-49 and col. 17, lines 31-35 and lines 8-13).
With regard to Claim 4, Ogawa teaches wherein the consumable good is ink (col. 2, line 66-col. 3, line 6).
With regard to Claim 5, Ogawa teaches further comprising a display unit configured to display the management information (col. 14, lines 5-15).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ogawa as modified JP 2022133803 A to Sugiura et al. “Sugiura.”
With regard to Claim 6, Ogawa teaches the claimed invention except for further comprising an image capturing unit configured to capture the image of the management target.
However, Sugiura teaches further comprising an image capturing unit configured to capture the image of the management target [0009] and [0030]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ogawa with the teachings of Suguira so that the user can accurately and smoothly carry out the task of replenishing the device with consumables [0007].
With regard to Claim 7, Ogawa teaches the claimed invention except for wherein the image capturing unit captures the image including a marker for identifying the management target, together with the management target.
However, Sugiura teaches wherein the image capturing unit captures the image including a marker for identifying the management target, together with the management target [0030]. The same motivation applies to this claimed as discussed in claim six above.
Examiner Note
The examiner cites particular columns and lines numbers (or paragraphs or figures) in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. The specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim. Other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The primary reason for the allowance of Claim 8 is the inclusion of the limitations wherein the transmission unit transmits a reset command of the management information as the control command. It is these features found in the claim(s) which have not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
Claims 9-13 are allowed
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The primary reason for the allowance of Claims 9-13 is the inclusion of the limitations a control unit configured to restrict a reset operation of the management information during a period from a transmission of the management information. It is these features found in the claim(s) which have not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2016/0155129 discloses an information processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit configured to acquire information relating to a target used by a customer with which an administrator has not made contact for a predetermined period; a determining unit configured to determine a target that matches a condition of replacement prediction, from among the targets of which the relating information has been acquired by the acquiring unit; a generating unit configured to generate proposal support information including the information relating to the target, with respect to the target that has been determined to match the condition by the determining unit; and a report unit configured to send a report that enables acquisition of the proposal support information including the information relating to the target, to the administrator managing the target that has been determined to match the condition by the determining unit.
US 2024/0020070 discloses a processing system includes a processing apparatus that performs processing by using consumables, and a server system that manages a service related to the consumables. The processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit that acquires first information about a consumption amount of a currently used consumable, a first updating unit that, based on the acquired first information, updates second information about a cumulative consumption amount of the consumable used by the processing apparatus stored in a first storage unit, and a transmission unit that transmits the updated second information to the server system. The server system includes a reception unit that receives the second information from the processing apparatus, and a first determination unit that determines whether to provide a service based on the second information received by the reception unit and the second information previously received from the processing apparatus which is stored in a second storage unit.
US 2023/0061231 discloses an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming section configured to form an image on a sheet and is capable of communicating with a server. The image forming section executes a series of an image formation job including a first step for forming an image on a sheet having a first attribute and a second step for forming an image on a sheet having a second attribute different from the first attribute after the first step. History information of the image formation job, which enables identification of switching timing between the first step and the second step, is acquired and notified to the server.
Communication with the PTO
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHARON A POLK whose telephone number is (571)270-7910. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 7-3.
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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas Rodriguez can be reached at 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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SHARON A. POLK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2853
/Sharon Polk/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853