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.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 9 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the limit value" in line 19. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the limit value" in line 20. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the limit value" in line 20. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the limit value" in line 21. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shindo (US 2020/0073276) and further in view of Furuta (US 2011/0298884).
With regard to claim 1, Shindo discloses an exposure apparatus (24) [Fig. 9] that exposes a photosensitive member (22) [Fig. 9] with light in accordance with image data, the exposure apparatus comprising:
a plurality of light-emitting elements (43) [Para. 0056] that are arranged along a direction of a rotation axis of the photosensitive member [Fig. 9] and configured to emit light for exposing the photosensitive member; and
at least one processor (208) configured to:
control turning on and off of the plurality of light-emitting elements in accordance with the image data [light amount; Para. 0043; Fig. 2];
generate correction data for use in increasing or decreasing the number of the light-emitting elements to be tuned on based on a correction amount for correcting unevenness in light amount [generate a mask pattern based on information regarding light amounts obtained from the storage; Para. 11]
correct image data [while the line head is being used, correction values are read out and illumination times are corrected; Para. 0005]
Shindo does not teach wherein the correction data is generated such that the correction data indicates a first value for a pixel for which the correction amount indicates the first value that does not exceed a predetermined limit value, and the correction data indicates a second value for a pixel for which the correction amount indicates a value that exceeds the limit value, the second value being equal to or smaller than the limit value.
However, Furuta teaches the correction data [light amount correction signal; Para. 0145] indicates a first value for a pixel [ON] for which the correction amount [light correction amount] indicates the first value that does not exceed a predetermined limit value [intensity is not higher than the predetermined threshold value K; Para. 0145-0147] and a second value for a pixel [OFF] for which the correction amount indicates a value that exceeds the limit value, the second value being equal to or smaller than the limit value [intensity is higher than the predetermined threshold value K; Para. 0145-0147] .
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to indicate a first value for a pixel and a second value for a pixel in order to reduce degradation of image quality.
With regard to claim 9, Shindo discloses an image-forming apparatus (101) [Fig. 8] comprising:
the photosensitive member (22) [Fig. 9]; and
an exposure apparatus (24) [Fig. 9], wherein the exposure apparatus includes:
a plurality of light-emitting elements (43) [Para. 0056] that are arranged along a direction of a rotation axis of the photosensitive member [Fig. 9] and configured to emit light for exposing the photosensitive member; and
at least one processor (208) configured to:
control turning on and off of the plurality of light-emitting elements in accordance with the image data [light amount; Para. 0043; Fig. 2];
generate correction data for use in increasing or decreasing the number of the light-emitting elements to be tuned on based on a correction amount for correcting unevenness in light amount [generate a mask pattern based on information regarding light amounts obtained from the storage; Para. 11]
correct image data [while the line head is being used, correction values are read out and illumination times are corrected; Para. 0005]
Shindo does not teach wherein the correction data is generated such that the correction data indicates a first value for a pixel for which the correction amount indicates the first value that does not exceed a predetermined limit value, and the correction data indicates a second value for a pixel for which the correction amount indicates a value that exceeds the limit value, the second value being equal to or smaller than the limit value.
However, Furuta (US 20110298884) teaches the correction data [light amount correction signal; Para. 0145] indicates a first value for a pixel [ON] for which the correction amount [light correction amount] indicates the first value that does not exceed a predetermined limit value [intensity is not higher than the predetermined threshold value K; Para. 0145-0147] and a second value for a pixel [OFF] for which the correction amount indicates a value that exceeds the limit value, the second value being equal to or smaller than the limit value [intensity is higher than the predetermined threshold value K; Para. 0145-0147] .
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to indicate a first value for a pixel and a second value for a pixel in order to reduce degradation of image quality.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Claims 2-6 are objected to because the prior art does not teach or make obvious “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine an adjustment amount of the electric current such that the unevenness in light amount among the plurality of light-emitting chips is suppressed, and
wherein the electric current supplied from each current source is adjusted based on the adjustment amount.”
Claims 7-8 are objected to because the prior art does not teach or make obvious “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine, for each of the plurality of sections, an adjustment amount of an electric current supplied to the light-emitting elements that belong to the section such that the unevenness in light amount among the plurality of sections is suppressed, and
wherein the electric current supplied to the light-emitting elements is adjusted based on the adjustment amount.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACEY M MCMILLION whose telephone number is (571)270-5193. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6AM-2:30PM EST.
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/TRACEY M MCMILLION/ Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/SHELBY L FIDLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853