Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/648,123

PROFILE EDITING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING PROFILE EDITING APPARATUS, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Apr 26, 2024
Priority
Apr 28, 2023 — JP 2023-074434
Examiner
CATO, MIYA J
Art Unit
2681
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Canon Inc.
OA Round
2 (Non-Final)
77%
Grant Probability
Favorable
2-3
OA Rounds
2m
Est. Remaining
89%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 77% — above average
77%
Career Allowance Rate
529 granted / 689 resolved
+14.8% vs TC avg
Moderate +12% lift
Without
With
+12.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 6m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
709
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
9.7%
-30.3% vs TC avg
§103
56.6%
+16.6% vs TC avg
§102
24.6%
-15.4% vs TC avg
§112
6.5%
-33.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 689 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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 . DETAILED ACTION Response to Amendment Claims 1-11 are pending in this application. Claims 1 and 7-11 have been amended [5/26/2026]. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-11 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 Ferreri (US-2019/0075220). 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)(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) 1-5 and 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ferreri (US-2019/0075220). As to Claim 1, Ferreri teaches ‘A profile editing apparatus comprising: one or more memories that store instructions; and one or more processors that cause, by executing the instructions, the profile editing apparatus to: obtain a color profile including a table, wherein the table includes conversion information for mapping an input color value to a first output color value via a calculation that is based on the input color value and on the conversion information [Figs 1 (140), 4, par 0019-0024, 0038-0042 – printing system includes a print controller and color management unit for providing a color-mapping from an input color space to a printer color space in one or more color lookup tables (LUTs) including InColor and OutColor1]; obtain specific color information that maps the input color value to a second output color value, wherein the second output color value is different from the first output color value [Fig 4, par 0027-0042 – computing a second output color (OutColor2) from an input color (InColor) based on enabling Force-X implementation]; and register the specific color information in the color profile such that the color profile includes both the specific color information and the conversion information [par 0023-0024, 0041 – InColor, x, OutColor1, and OutColor2 are all added and cached storing the color mapping data]’. As to Claim 2, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the color profile and the specific color information are expressed in a color space with three or more channels [par 0026, 0048 – RGB to CMYK]’. As to Claim 3, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the color space with three or more channels is a red-green-blue (RGB) color space [par 0026, 0048 – RGB to CMYK]’. As to Claim 4, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the color space with three or more channels is a cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK) color space [par 0026, 0048 – RGB to CMYK]. As to Claim 5, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the color profile is an International Color Consortium (ICC) profile [par 0023 – ICC profiles]’. As to Claim 7, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the specific color information includes the input color value and the second output color value [par 0023-0042 – Force-X transformation maps an input color to a second output color]’. As to Claim 8, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the calculation that is based on the input color value and on the conversion information includes interpolation [par 0027-0039 – color engine enables two colors to be simultaneously interpolated in LUT to compute a first output color and a second output color]’. As to Claim 9, Ferreri teaches ‘wherein the profile editing apparatus is an image forming apparatus, and wherein the image forming apparatus performs color adjustment on image data based on the color profile including the specific color information [Fig 1, par 0018-0023 – printing system includes printer controller and printer that includes one or more color caches and color lookup tables (LUTs) storing mapping of an input color and two output colors]’. 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) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ferreri et al. in view of Bala et al. (US-2010/0086230). As to Claim 6, Ferreri teaches all of the claimed elements/features as recited in dependent claim 5 and independent claim 1. Ferreri does not disclose expressly ‘wherein the specific color information is added as a private tag of the ICC profile’. Bala teaches ‘wherein the specific color information is added as a private tag of the ICC profile [par 0020, 0028-0029 – private tags are used to store special information of a color transformation, where new NLC private tags and modified lookup table are written in a new ICC profile]’. Ferreri and Bala are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data print color 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 private tags in a special CMM, as taught by Bala. The motivation for doing so would have been to providing a user-friendly color editing system when reading from private tags. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Bala with Ferreri to obtain the invention as specified in claim 6. Conclusion The prior art made of record a. US Publication No. 2019/0075220 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIYA J CATO whose telephone number is (571)270-3954. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 830-530. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Akwasi Sarpong can be reached at 571.270.3438. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /MIYA J CATO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Apr 26, 2024
Application Filed
Feb 25, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103
May 20, 2026
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
May 20, 2026
Examiner Interview Summary
May 26, 2026
Response Filed
Jun 11, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103
Aug 05, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12700071
IMAGE SENSING DEVICE AND HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGE GENERATION METHOD THEREOF
2y 8m to grant Granted Aug 04, 2026
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IMAGE READING APPARATUS
2y 2m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12663727
METHOD FOR CORRECTING MEASUREMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND ASSOCIATED APPARATUSES
4y 0m to grant Granted Jun 23, 2026
Patent 12664388
Automatic Media Color Profile Identification
2y 6m to grant Granted Jun 23, 2026
Patent 12657774
DATA PIPELINE FOR CAMERAS WITH MULTIPLE COLOR CHANNELS
3y 3m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

2-3
Expected OA Rounds
77%
Grant Probability
89%
With Interview (+12.3%)
2y 6m (~2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 689 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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