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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the distributed disposition is non- periodic must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
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.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 11 recites inter alia, “wherein the distributed disposition is non-periodic”. Applicant points to paragraph [0076] of the published specification (reproduced below) as support for the added feature but the Office finds no evidence of such support:
[0076] In the image forming system and the image forming method according to the present exemplary embodiment, in the unit 10T using the crimping toner, the crimping toner having pressure-responsiveness is applied to at least a portion of the surface of the recording medium P to form a net-dot structure having 300 or more of screen lines. As a result, the adhesive strength of the crimping toner is improved as compared with a case where the net-dot structure having 300 or more of screen lines is not provided. In a case where the number of screen lines is less than 300 lines, the adhesive strength of the crimping toner is not improved. Further, by setting the number of screen lines to 300 lines or more, it is not possible to reproduce the net-dot structure by the electrophotographic method, an image of sparseness as uniform as possible is obtained, and high adhesive strength is realized. An upper limit of the number of screen lines is not particularly limited. For example, 600 lines or less is preferable from the viewpoint of stabilizing the adhesion amount of the crimping toner on paper, or the like. Thus, the number of screen lines is preferably set to be in a range of, for example, 400 lines or more and 600 lines or less. By setting the number of screen lines to be in a range of 400 lines or more and 600 lines or less, the adhesive strength of the crimping toner is further improved.
The Office submits, that a number of screen lines is periodic in nature and sparseness does not preclude periodicity.
Claim 11 is 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 11 recites inter alia, “wherein the distributed disposition is non-periodic”. It is unclear what the recited passage aims to claim thus precluding a reasonable search over prior art, as one skilled in the art cannot determine the metes and bounds of the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 are allowable.
Claim(s) 11 is(are) not currently subject to a prior art rejection, but allowable subject matter cannot be determined due to the impact that possible amendments relating to rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112 may have on the claim meaning and scope.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 5,213,560 is relevant to a system and method for constructing sealed printed packages and one-piece mailers provides fixedly applying printing toner to predetermined locations upon a first part of a face of a printable sheet.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARLENE HEREDIA whose telephone number is (571)272-8393. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30-5:30.
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, Stephanie Bloss can be reached at (571) 272-3555. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Arlene Heredia Ocasio/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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