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 .
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) 1-3 and 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yagi (US 2022/0128922).
Regarding claim 1, Yagi discloses “a plurality of light-emitting chips (Fig. 3A, ref.# 631a, 631b, 631c) arranged along a first direction parallel to an axial direction of the photosensitive body (Fig. 2, ref.# 12), wherein each of the plurality of light-emitting chips includes: K current sources (Fig. 5) (K is an integer of two or more); and a plurality of light-emitting elements (Fig. 3B, ref.# 71) arranged in the first direction and grouped into K light-emitting element groups (Fig. 3B, ref.# C), light-emitting elements belonging to a k-th light-emitting element group being supplied with electric current from a k-th current source, where k = 1, 2, ..., K, (Fig. 5, paragraph 0067) and for every one light-emitting element group out of the K light-emitting element groups, a width occupied in the first direction by the one light-emitting element group is larger than a lower limit value corresponding to a spatial frequency at which contrast sensitivity of human vision represented by a visual transfer function peaks (paragraph 0100: width of group is 10.8mm which is larger than one millimeter, which corresponds to the lower limit value).”
Regarding claim 2, Yagi discloses “wherein the visual transfer function is the Dooley and Shaw's VTF function represented by a following expression: [Math 2] VTF=5.05e-0.138ν1-e-0.1ν,ν=πiλ180where λ denotes a spatial frequency.” (paragraph 0100: claim 3 below sets the lower limit value corresponding to the equation of claim 2 as one millimeter; paragraph 0100 sets forth a width of 10.8mm which larger than the limit value)
Regarding claim 3, Yagi discloses “wherein the lower limit value is one millimeter.” (paragraph 0100 sets forth a width of 10.8mm which larger than the limit value)
Regarding claim 6, Yagi discloses “wherein each of the plurality of light-emitting chips (Fig. 3A, ref.# 631a, 631b, 631c) includes a two-dimensional array of light-emitting elements in M rows (M is an integer of two or more ) in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction and N columns (N is an integer of two or more) in the first direction (Fig. 3B, ref.# C), and the width occupied in the first direction by the one light-emitting element group corresponds to a spacing in the first direction between two light-emitting elements having a widest spacing in the first direction among the light-emitting elements belonging to the one light-emitting element group (See Fig. 3B).”
Regarding claim 7, Yagi discloses “wherein each of the plurality of light-emitting chips further includes: K adjustment circuits configured to adjust respective amounts of electric current supplied from the K current sources such that amounts of light emitted from the K light-emitting element groups are uniform.” (paragraph 0067)
Regarding claim 8, Yagi discloses a photosensitive body (Fig/ 2, ref.# 12); and an image exposure apparatus (Fig. 2, ref.# 14) for exposing the photosensitive body, the exposure apparatus comprising: a plurality of light-emitting chips (Fig. 3A, ref.# 631a, 631b, 631c) arranged along a first direction parallel to an axial direction of the photosensitive body, wherein each of the plurality of light-emitting chips includes: K current sources (Fig. 5) (K is an integer of two or more); and a plurality of light-emitting elements (Fig. 3B, ref.# 71) arranged in the first direction and grouped into K light-emitting element groups (Fig. 3B, ref.# C), light-emitting elements belonging to a k-th light-emitting element group being supplied with electric current from a k-th current source, where k = 1, 2, ..., K, (Fig. 5, paragraph 0067) and for every one light-emitting element group out of the K light-emitting element groups, a width occupied in the first direction by the one light-emitting element group is larger than a lower limit value corresponding to a spatial frequency at which contrast sensitivity of human vision represented by a visual transfer function peaks (paragraph 0100: width of group is 10.8mm which is larger than one millimeter, which corresponds to the lower limit value).”
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) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yagi (US 2022/0128922).
Yagi discloses all the structure set forth in the claims except (Claim 4) “wherein, for every one light-emitting element group out of the K light-emitting element groups, the width occupied in the first direction by the one light-emitting element group is smaller than an upper limit value corresponding to a tolerance of a voltage drop in electric current supply from the current sources to the light-emitting elements” and (Claim 5) “wherein the upper limit value is four millimeters.” It would have been obvious to select width of the group of light elements to be smaller than a value corresponding to a tolerance of a voltage drop in electric current supply from the current sources to the light-emitting elements or four millimeters, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Tanimoto (US 20225/0203705), Yagi (US 2022/0091533), Suzuki, et al. (US 2021/0072661), Inoue, et al. (US 2009/0129819) and Izumi (US 6,188,466) teach an exposure apparatus with a plurality of light emitting chips with a plurality of current sources.
Aonuma (JP 2013154610) teach selecting a banding width corresponding to a visual transfer function.
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/RODNEY E FULLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
March 12, 2026