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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 8/11/2026 has been entered.
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-10 are pending in this application.
Claims 1 and 8-10 have been amended [8/11/2026].
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-10 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument based on newly applied reference HIRANO SACHIKO (JP-2010-273208A).
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) 1-6 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katsuzawa (US-2020/0364015) in view of HIRANO SACHIKO (JP-2010-273208A) [hereinafter Sachiko].
As to Claim 1, Katsuzawa teaches ‘A color correction device comprising: a memory configured to store a program; and a processor configured to execute the program so as to: convert an input value of a print color in an input color space into an output value in an output color space [Fig 1B (S102), par 0027-0029, 0068 – CPU of the host PC converts the color of the pre-conversion color system to the color of the ink color system]; receive a selection, as a target color component, of one or more color components among the plurality of color components [par 0029-0034 – position selecting process for selecting a position to be represented by a pure color with only one color ink or a secondary color with two colors of ink]; correct the output value in a manner of reducing the target color component when the input value represents a color not including the target color component to generate corrected output value of each of the plurality of color components [par 0030-0031, 0041-0042, 0051-0052 – color correcting process performed on the color conversion result for the selected position so as to be the color expressed using ink of a predetermined number of colors or less to retain pure color]’.
Katsuzawa does not disclose expressly ‘display a selection window in a display, the selection window displaying a plurality of color components of the print color; the selection being performed by a user via the selection window; and display the input value of each of the plurality of color components, the corrected value of each of the plurality of color components, and the output value of each of the plurality of color components in the selection window in the display’, although Katsuzawa teaches position selecting process for a user selecting a position to be represented by a pure color with only one color ink or a secondary color with two colors of ink [par 0028-0034, 0064].
Sachiko teaches ‘display a selection window in a display, the selection window displaying a plurality of color components of the print color; the selection being performed by a user via the selection window; and display the input value of each of the plurality of color components, the corrected value of each of the plurality of color components, and the output value of each of the plurality of color components in the selection window in the display [Figs 5, 10, par 0045-0048, 0066-0067, 0102-0105 – displaying a device link profile creation screen for a user to designate a list of adjustment points (i.e., color components), a pre-adjustment point display indicating a color value after conversion obtained, and a post-adjustment point display that shows the value of the color after adjustment, where the preservation of a pure color is made based on the pre-adjustment point]’.
Katsuzawa and Sachiko are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective of the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to incorporate a device link profile creation screen, as taught by Sachiko. The motivation for doing so would have been to reducing a work burden on a user when adjusting a color conversion profile by automating high-level adjustment of the color conversion profile when preserving a pure color input. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Sachiko with Katsuzawa to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
Further, in regards to claim 9 the color correction device of claim 1 performs the color correction method of claim 9.
Further, in regards to claim 10, the color correction of method of claim 9 is fully embodied on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10.
As to Claim 2, Katsuzawa in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the processor is further configured to receive a the selection, as the target color component, of three or more color components among the plurality of color components [par 0028, 0064-0065 – user selecting a position in a region that is to be printed as a pure color or a secondary color based on CMYK ink color system]’.
As to Claim 3, Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko teaches ‘wherein when N is an integer of 3 or more, the processor is further configured to receive the selection, as the target color component, of any one or more and N or less color components among N color components of the plurality of color components corresponding to N color materials used in a printing device [Katsuzawa: par 0030-0032, 0041-0042, 0051-0052; Sachiko: Figs 5, 10, par 0045-0048, 0066-0067, 0102-0105 – color correcting process performed on the color conversion result for the selected position so as to be the color expressed using ink of a predetermined number of colors or less which are less than the number of ink colors used in the printing apparatus]’.
Katsuzawa and Sachiko are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective of the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to incorporate a device link profile creation screen, as taught by Sachiko. The motivation for doing so would have been to reducing a work burden on a user when adjusting a color conversion profile by automating high-level adjustment of the color conversion profile when preserving a pure color input. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Sachiko with Katsuzawa to obtain the invention as specified in claim 3.
As to Claim 4, Katsuzawa teaches ‘wherein the correction of the output value of reducing the target color component is a process of correcting the output value in a manner of changing a value of the target color component to a corrected value that is not zero [Figs 3A-B, par 0050-0055 – performing a color conversion using ICC profile to correct post-conversion when retaining a pure color by deleting components of colors other than the pure color (i.e. cyan), where in this case, in the corrected color, the concentration of cyan is changed from 100% to 96%, and the concentration of other colors is changed to 0%]’.
As to Claim 5, Katsuzawa teaches ‘wherein the processor is further configured to correct an output value component corresponding to a color component other than the target color component among the plurality of color components to reduce a difference between a first color represented by the output value before the correction and a second color represented by the output value after the correction [Figs 3A-B, par 0050-0055 – performing a color conversion using ICC profile to correct post-conversion when retaining a pure color by deleting components of colors other than the pure color (i.e. cyan), where in this case, in the corrected color, the concentration of cyan is 96%, and the concentration of other colors is 0%]’.
As to Claim 6, Katsuzawa teaches ‘wherein the memory is further configured to store a color conversion lookup table for converting the input color space into the output color space, and the processor is configured to correct the output value with reference to the color conversion lookup table [par 0029, 0040, 0034, 0050-0056 – an ICC profile created in advance according to the characteristics of the ink used in the printing apparatus is used as the profile on a color set in the input print data, and use the conversion result of color spaces as it is to be corrected in the color correcting process]’.
As to Claim 8, Katsuzawa teaches ‘A printing system comprising: a color correction device [Fig 1A (14) – Host PC]; and a printing device [Fig 1A (12) – printing apparatus], wherein the color correction device includes: a memory configured to store a program; and a processor configured to execute the program so as to: convert an input value of a print color in an input color space into an output value in an output color space [Fig 1B (S102), par 0027-0029, 0068 – CPU of the host PC converts the color of the pre-conversion color system to the color of the ink color system]; receive a selection, as a target color component, of one or more color components among the plurality of color components [par 0029-0034 – position selecting process for selecting a position to be represented by a pure color with only one color ink or a secondary color with two colors of ink], correct the output value in a manner of reducing the target color component when the input value represents a color not including the target color component [par 0030-0031, 0041-0042, 0051-0052 – color correcting process performed on the color conversion result for the selected position so as to be the color expressed using ink of a predetermined number of colors or less], and generate printing data to be supplied to a printing device using the corrected output value’ [par 0037, 0042, 0064-0066 – perform a control using binary data generated by performing raster image processor (RIP) process or the like based on print data, for the operation of ejecting ink in of a pure color or secondary color]’.
Katsuzawa does not disclose expressly ‘display a selection window in a display, the selection window displaying a plurality of color components of the print color; the selection being performed by a user via the selection window; display the input value of each of the plurality of color components, the corrected value of each of the plurality of color components, and the output value of each of the plurality of color components in the selection window in the display’, although Katsuzawa teaches position selecting process for a user selecting a position to be represented by a pure color with only one color ink or a secondary color with two colors of ink [par 0028-0034, 0064].
Sachiko teaches ‘display a selection window in a display, the selection window displaying a plurality of color components of the print color; the selection being performed by a user via the selection window; and display the input value of each of the plurality of color components, the corrected value of each of the plurality of color components, and the output value of each of the plurality of color components in the selection window in the display [Figs 5, 10, par 0045-0048, 0066-0067, 0102-0105 – displaying a device link profile creation screen for a user to designate a list of adjustment points (i.e., color components), a pre-adjustment point display indicating a color value after conversion obtained, and a post-adjustment point display that shows the value of the color after adjustment, where the preservation of a pure color is made based on the pre-adjustment point]’.
Katsuzawa and Sachiko are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective of the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to incorporate a device link profile creation screen, as taught by Sachiko. The motivation for doing so would have been to reducing a work burden on a user when adjusting a color conversion profile by automating high-level adjustment of the color conversion profile when preserving a pure color input. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Sachiko with Katsuzawa to obtain the invention as specified in claim 8.
Claim(s) 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko and further in view of Borg (US-7,911,665).
As to Claim 7, Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko teaches all of the claimed elements/features as recited in dependent claim 6 and independent claim 1. Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko does not disclose expressly ‘wherein the processor is further configured to: select a grid point at which an input value component corresponding to the target color component is not present among a plurality of grid points of the color conversion lookup table; and correct an output value component corresponding to the target color component among the output value for the selected grid point’.
Katsuzawa teaches an ICC profile created in advance according to the characteristics of the ink used in the printing apparatus is used as the profile on a color set in the input print data, and use the conversion result of color spaces as it is to be corrected in the color correcting process [par 0029, 0040, 0034, 0050-0056].
Borg in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the processor is further configured to: select a grid point at which an input value component corresponding to the target color component is not present among a plurality of grid points of the color conversion lookup table; and correct an output value component corresponding to the target color component among the output value for the selected grid point [col 3, line 18-col 4, line 4, col 8 line 48-col 9, line 5, col 10, line 24-col 11, line 17 – applying a correction factor to grid points of an input to output LUT based on selected color values of an output color space]’.
Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko are analogous art with Borg because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital print data generation systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include correcting grid points of an output color space, as taught by Borg. The motivation for doing so would have been to purifying muddied primary color values of an output color space. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Borg with Katsuzawa in view of Sachiko to obtain the invention as specified in claim 7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record
a. JP Publication No. 2010-273208A
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/MIYA J CATO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
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