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 .
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 as being anticipated by Takeuchi US 20210034306
1. A terminal device comprising:
a first communication processor that establishes a wireless communication connection according to a first wireless communication scheme (Takeuchi: [0046] establish a connection (infrastructure connection) based on the infrastructure connection mode in the Wi-Fi communication);
a transmission controller that performs control to transmit, to a wireless communication device, instruction information giving an instruction to execute a function installed in the wireless communication device, using the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme (Takeuchi: [0028, 0038, 0053, 0058] e.g., a printing execution function - for example, transmit a print job for instructing the communication apparatus 101 to perform printing and a scan job for instructing the communication apparatus 101 to perform scanning to the communication apparatus 101 via the established connection);
a second communication processor that establishes, with the wireless communication device, a wireless communication connection according to a second wireless communication scheme that is a communication scheme conforming to a NAN (Neighbor Awareness Networking) standard and that is different from the first wireless communication scheme (Takeuchi: [0041-0045, 0050] establish a direct connection based on the Peer To Peer (P2P) connection mode without an external apparatus such as the AP 103); and
a state information acquisition unit that acquires state information representing a state of the wireless communication device from the wireless communication device, using the wireless communication connection according to the second wireless communication scheme, when a response to the instruction information is not given (Takeuchi: [0069] acquires information about the cause of the communication error via the re-established direct connection and notifies the user of the cause of the communication error and a method for solving the cause of the communication error).
2. The terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising: a display controller that performs control to display the state information (Takeuchi: fig. 4-5 [0081] the display unit 208 displays the status code received).
3. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the state information includes information representing a result of a diagnosis by the wireless communication device about the state of the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme of the wireless communication device (Takeuchi: fig. 4-5, 9 unit 901 [0093] diagnosis result).
4. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the state information includes information representing a result of a diagnosis by the wireless communication device about the state of the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme of the wireless communication device, the state information acquisition unit further acquires reference information that is information which a user should refer to in order to solve a defect in the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme of the wireless communication device, along with the result of the diagnosis, from the wireless communication device, using the wireless communication connection according to the second wireless communication scheme, and the display controller further performs control to display the reference information (Takeuchi: fig. 4-5, 9-10 unit 901 [0093-0095] diagnosis result).
5. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the state information includes information representing a result of a diagnosis by the wireless communication device about the state of the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme of the wireless communication device, the terminal device includes a storage that stores reference information that is information which a user should refer to in order to solve a defect in the wireless communication connection according to the first wireless communication scheme of the wireless communication device, and the display controller further performs control to display the reference information corresponding to the result of the diagnosis (Takeuchi: fig. 4-5, 9-10 unit 901 [0093-0095] diagnosis result).
6. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission controller further performs control to transmit the instruction information to the wireless communication device, using the wireless communication connection according to the second wireless communication scheme, when a response to the instruction information is not given (Takeuchi: [0069] acquires information about the cause of the communication error via the re-established direct connection and notifies the user of the cause of the communication error and a method for solving the cause of the communication error).
Regarding claims 10-11, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1, where the difference used is a “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
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.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeuchi US 20210034306 in view of Shimazaki US 20190235801
8. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the state information includes information about a remaining amount of a consumable item installed in the wireless communication device in order to execute the function, and the display controller further performs control to display a warning that gives a notification of a shortage of the consumable item, when the state information indicates the shortage of the consumable item (Shimazaki: [0059] updates status information, such as a remaining amount of the ink tank and a print head condition).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Takeuchi’s invention in order to appropriate control of a frequency of communication in the NAN, as taught by Shimazaki.
7. The terminal device according to claim 6, wherein the state information includes information representing a state about the function of the wireless communication device, and the transmission controller performs control not to transmit the instruction information to the wireless communication device, using the wireless communication connection according to the second wireless communication scheme, when the state information indicates an abnormality in the function (Takeuchi: [0094] without notifying the user of the error; Shimazaki: [0119, 0123] printer 100 is not necessary to be notified to a user).
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.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeuchi US 20210034306 in view of Kim KR 20060063167
8. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the state information includes information about a remaining amount of a consumable item installed in the wireless communication device in order to execute the function, and the display controller further performs control to display a warning that gives a notification of a shortage of the consumable item, when the state information indicates the shortage of the consumable item (Kim: fig. 2, unit s503 - the information about the printer 100 includes a remaining amount of toner, a paper supply state, a print progress level, and the like).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Takeuchi’s invention in order to transmit the information about the printer 100 to the host device 200 and displayed on the screen, as taught by Kim.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeuchi US 20210034306 in view of Jung US 20160150537
9. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the second communication processor specifies a connection target of the wireless communication connection according to the second wireless communication scheme, based on a MAC (media access control) address of the wireless communication device that is a destination of transmission of the instruction information (Jung: [0185] MAC address of a target device, an NAN interface address).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Takeuchi’s invention in order to transmit the information include identification information of a transmission target, as taught by Jung.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is (571) 270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9 to 5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski, can be reached on (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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