Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/17/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
3. Claims 1-2, 5-7, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0177242 (Kondo et al.) (hereinafter “Kondo”).
Regarding claim 1, Figs. 1-12 show a medium transport device comprising:
a separation roller unit (including 90) and
a unit accommodation section (including 62) in which the separation roller unit (including 90) is detachably and attachably provided, wherein
the separation roller unit (including 90) includes
a separation roller (including 52) that is configured to contact a feed roller (including 46) for feeding the medium and that is provided rotatably around a shaft (53) and
a roller holder (including 101-102, 104-108, 112 and 114 in Figs. 10-11), that is configured to hold the separation roller (including 52) and that has a guide section (142) for guiding the medium toward the feed roller (including 46), and wherein
the unit accommodation section (including 62) is provided with an adjustment section (including 152) for adjusting a position of the guide section (142) in a state where the separation roller unit (including 90) is attached to the unit accommodation section (including 62), the adjustment occurring in a direction (up) that intersects an axial direction of the shaft (53), the adjustment section (including 152) remaining with the unit accommodation section (including 62) upon detachment of the separation roller unit (including 90) from the unit accommodation section (including 62). See, e.g., Fig. 16 and numbered paragraphs [0182] – [0183]) of Kondo.
Regarding claim 2, Figs. 1-12 show that the adjustment section (including 152) includes a placement surface (157) at a position where the roller holder (including 101-102, 104-108, 112 and 114) of the unit accommodation section (including 62) is placed in a state in which the separation roller unit (including 90) is attached to the unit accommodation section (including 62), the adjustment section (including 152) further comprising a spacer (including 83, 85 and bottom surface of 90) that is disposed on the placement surface (157) and that adjusts the position of the guide section (142). See, e.g., Fig. 16.
Regarding claim 5, Figs. 1-12 show that the separation roller unit (including 90) includes a first pushing member (including 83 and 85) configured to elastically push the separation roller (including 52) toward the feed roller (46).
Regarding claim 6, Figs. 1-12 show that the first pushing member (including 83 and 85) is a torsion coil spring provided along the axial direction (provided in all directions), one end section (top section) of the torsion coil spring (including 83 and 85) is exposed to the outside of the separation roller unit (including 90), and the separation roller unit (including 90) includes a holding section (lower section) configured to hold the one end section.
Regarding claim 7, Figs. 1-12 show that the separation roller unit (including 90) includes a first locking section (including 122, 119 and 128) that locks with a first locked section (172) provided in the unit accommodation section (including 62) and that is provided at both end sections of the separation roller unit (including 90) in the axial direction and the first locking section (including 122, 119 and 128) being detachable and attachable by being separated from the first locked section (172).
Regarding claim 10, Figs. 1-12 show that the separation roller unit (including 90) is detachable and attachable along the transport direction of the medium at a nip position between the feed roller (46) and the separation roller (52).
Regarding claim 11, Figs. 1-12 show a recording device comprising:
the medium transport device according to claim 1 and
a recording section (including 24) configured to perform recording on a medium transported from the medium transport device.
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.
4. Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kondo as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0011704 (Kawada) (hereinafter “Kawada”). With regard to claim 3, Kondo teaches the adjustment section (including 152) for adjusting the position of the guide section (142), but Kondo does not teach that this adjusting section is configured to adjust the position of the guide section by power of a power source, as claimed.
Kawada shows that it is well-known in the art to provide a medium transport device (Fig. 5) with a guide arrangement with a guide section (including 12 and 13) and an adjustment section (14) for adjusting the position of the guide section (including 12 and 13), in which the adjustment section (including 14) is configured to adjust the position of the guide section (including 12 and 13) by power of a power source (numbered paragraph [0038]), for the purpose of accommodating different sheets. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to provide the Kondo apparatus with a guide arrangement that has an adjustment section configured to adjust the position of a guide section by power of a power source, for the purpose of accommodating different thickness sheets, as taught by Kawada.
With regard to claim 4, providing the Kondo apparatus with a guide arrangement, in a manner as taught by Kawada, results in the adjustment section (14 of Kawada) being provided with a cam member (including 20-22 of Kawada) configured to adjust the guide section (including 12 and 13 of Kawada) to at least two positions (positions in Figs. 6B-6D of Kawada).
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments filed 3/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues
Kondo describes a separation roller assembly. Figure 7 of Kondo is reproduced below with colorization added for ease of reference.
Figure 7 shows an assembly that includes a separation roller 52 (red). The assembly also includes a “based guide 62” (green), which the Office Action alleges corresponds to our recited “unit accommodation section”. The Office Action alleges that element 90 (orange) corresponds to our recited “separation roller unit” as it does indeed contain a separation roller 52. It appears as though the base guide unit 62 is connected to the remainder of assembly 90 using screws. The Examiner alleges that the member 142 includes guide members 143 (blue). Figures 10 illustrates an element 90 in further detail with the base guide 62 (and other portions of Figure 7) removed. Offices Action refers to Figure 16 (reproduced below). The Office Action asserts that the portion 152 (which appears to be a spring) corresponds to the recited “adjustment section”. The Examiner says that the portion pushes the guide member 142 up and thus can be consider to adjust the guide member 142. However, Figures 16 merely shows what happens when the assembly is released from the printer. The upper part of Figure 16 shows prior to removal from the printer when there are other printer components pressing down on the guide member 142 (and thus compressing the portion 152). The lower part of Figure 16 shows after removal when there are no components pressing down on the guide member 142 (and thus the portion 152 is allowed to extend due to spring action). Claim 1 is amended to recite that the adjustment section is for adjusting the position of the guide section “in a state where the separation roller unit is attached to the unit accommodation section”. Figure 16 shows that the stretching and movement of the guide 142 (due to compressing and releasing of the spring) occurs due to removal of the separation roller unit from the unit accommodation section. Thus, as amended, the portion cannot be considered to be the recited “adjustment section”.
The examiner disagrees with this argument. Numbered paragraphs [0182] – [0183] of Kondo state “[0182] Next, as illustrated in FIG. 16, when operation of releasing the releasing section 164 (FIG. 7) is performed, the first restricting section 172 moves to the retreating position separated from the second holder 114. At this time, since a pressing force from the pressing section 152 acts on the second holder 114, the attachable/detachable unit 90 is brought into a state of being raised in the +Z direction. Specifically, the upstream portion of the attachable/detachable unit 90 in the feeding direction of the sheet P is pushed up. [0183] In the −Z direction and the +Z direction of the attachable/detachable unit 90 which is pushed up, gripping spaces D1 and D2 (FIG. 4) used for attaching/detaching the attachable/detachable unit 90 are formed. The attachable/detachable unit 90 is then detached.” (emphasis added). In other words, numbered paragraphs [0182] – [0183] teach that separation roller unit (including 90) is pushed up to a raised position by adjustment section (including 152), but is still attached to unit accommodation section (including 62) (i.e., NOT detached) in Fig. 16, and that gripping spaces D1 and D2 are then used to detach separation roller unit (including 90). As such, Kondo teaches a unit accommodation section (including 62) is provided with an adjustment section (including 152) for adjusting a position of a guide section (142) in a state where a separation roller unit (including 90) is attached to the unit accommodation section (including 62), the adjustment occurring in a direction (up) that intersects an axial direction of a shaft (53), the adjustment section (including 152) remaining with the unit accommodation section (including 62) upon detachment of a separation roller unit (including 90) from the unit accommodation section (including 62). See, e.g., Fig. 16 and numbered paragraphs [0182] – [0183]) of Kondo. All of the limitations of amended claim 1 are met by Kondo.
The rejections of dependent claims 2-7 and 10-11 are also outlined above.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 8-9 are 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
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS A MORRISON whose telephone number is (571)272-7221. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mike McCullough can be reached at 571-272-7805. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS A MORRISON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653