DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Interpretations - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
Claim limitations “a guide unit”, “a detector", “a control portion”, and “a light unit”, “sensor portion” has/have been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because it uses/they use a generic placeholder coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to achieve the function.
Since the claim limitation(s) invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, claim(s) 1-16 has/have been interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification that achieves the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
A review of the specification shows that the following appears to be the corresponding structure described in the specification for the 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph limitation: “guide unit”, “detector”, Paragraph [0100]; “control portion”, Paragraph [0031]; Paragraph [0020]; “light unit”, Paragraph [0033], “sensor portion”, Paragraph [0026]
If applicant wishes to provide further explanation or dispute the examiner’s interpretation of the corresponding structure, applicant must identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
If applicant does not intend to have the claim limitation(s) treated under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may amend the claim(s) so that it/they will clearly not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, or present a sufficient showing that the claim recites/recite sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function to preclude application of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
For more information, see MPEP § 2173 et seq. and Supplementary Examination Guidelines for Determining Compliance With 35 U.S.C. 112 and for Treatment of Related Issues in Patent Applications, 76 FR 7162, 7167 (Feb. 9, 2011).
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 of this title, 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ogino US2019/0174022 in view of Akai US2017/0174453.
As per Claim 1, Ogino teaches an image reading apparatus for reading an image on a sheet while conveying the sheet, (Ogino, Paragraph [0026], “The image reading unit 200 records the image information that has been read... The image reading unit 200 includes a document cover that holds a document to read disposed on a document surface glass (also referred to as a document platen). The image reading unit 200 includes an auto document feeder (ADF) that can be detached. The ADF feeds the document”) the image reading apparatus comprising:
a conveyance mechanism configured to convey the sheet; (Ogino, Paragraph [0026],“The image reading unit 200 includes an auto document feeder (ADF) that can be detached. The ADF feeds the document”)
a guide unit configured to guide the sheet, the guide unit configured to be attachable and detachable with respect to a predetermined position of the image reading apparatus; and (Ogino, Paragraph [0026] ,“The image reading unit 200 includes an auto document feeder (ADF) that can be detached. The ADF feeds the document”, guide unit is considered to be the ADF)
Ogino does not explicitly teach a detector configured to detect whether the guide unit is attached to the predetermined position.
Akai teaches a detector configured to detect whether the guide unit is attached to the predetermined position. (Akai, Paragraph [0095], “The elevation detector(s), such as the elevation detector(s) 180, is (are) also an attachment and detachment detector(s) to detect attachment and detachment of the sheet-material retaining conveyor(s). As described in the above-described embodiments, such a configuration obviates the necessity of additional attachment and detachment detector(s), thus allowing cost reduction and downsizing of the sheet supply device”)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Akai into Ogino because by utilizing means to detect attachment/detachment of a sheet conveyor which is equivalent of an ADF of Ogino to determine the attachment status of the sheet conveyor will provide status of an essential component of the image reading device for further processing.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to combine the two references to obtain the invention in Claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 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 12-16 are allowed.
Regarding independent Claim 12; the Examiner found neither prior art cited in its entirety, nor based on the prior art, found any motivation to combine any of the said prior art that teaches: “a light unit including a light projection portion configured to project light toward the guide unit and a sensor portion configured to detect light projected by the light projection portion, and a control portion configured to perform a reading operation of reading the image on the sheet while conveying the sheet and configured to determine whether to perform the reading operation on the basis of a detection result of the sensor portion”)
The dependent claims are allowable due to its dependence to the independent claim.
Conclusion
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/MING Y HON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2666