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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments with arguments regarding newly added limitations filed on 5/26/26 have been fully considered, see following office action for details.
The 101 abstract idea rejection in previous office action have been withdrawn. However, the newly added limitation raised new 101 rejection caused by non-statutory subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The newly added limitation “the job including an approval of the document by a worker” in claims 1, 6-7 and 12 is a step implemented by human action, it does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter. Such non-statutory limitation won’t be considered in the art rejection.
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.
Claims 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Japanese Application Publication JP 2007-306332 A (hereinafter "Iwasaki").
Regarding claim 6, Iwasaki teaches the invention as claimed including an image forming device [par. 24] comprising:
a printer configured to print an image on a medium (printing unit 20 performs printing with a visible image on a paper having a specified size and quality (par. [0028]));
a reader-writer configured to write data to an electronic device provided on the medium (RFID reader for writing/reading data to/from the document 9 with an RFID tag (par. [0029]));
a memory configured to store document management information including job information about a job executed using a document whose data is written by the reader- writer to the electronic device disposed on the medium on which the image is printed by the printer (job history (a list of job management information) stored in the job management unit 46 of the multifunction machine 3 (par. [0037]), the job including an approval of the document by a worker (as discussed under 101 rejection, set forth above, the non-statutory limitation won’t be considered);
CPU 41 writes job management information by the RFID reader/writer in the job management unit (par. [0043]));
a communication interface configured to communicate with a reader that corresponds to the job represented by the job information in the document management information and read the electronic device disposed on the document (CPU reads the surface of the RFID-tagged document and accumulates the document image data in HDD 45, then reads the document image data from the HDD to print the document image data on a designated number of sheets of paper (par. [0042])); and
a processor configured to update information that represents a work status of the job represented by the job information in the document management information, based on reading information of the electronic device provided on the document by the reader (CPU updates the job status in the job management information stored in the job management unit according to the progress of the job (par. [0042])).
Regarding claim 12, since it is a method claim of claim 6, it’s rejected under the same basis as claim 6 above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/JINSONG HU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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