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
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) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JP 2004315116 to Tanaka.
Regarding claim 7, Tanaka discloses a reading device comprising (PAGE 6, lines 20-29, scanner 12):
a scanner configured to read an image on a medium (PAGE 6, lines 20-29, scanner 12 reads image of application form (medium)); and
a processor (page 4, line 24; computer) configured to
acquire information indicating a target area of the image on the medium (page 8, lines 49-51; page 9, lines 11-13; by detecting marks on the form it acquires information regarding target area where the information are on the image of the application form);
recognize character information from the target area of the image on the medium read by the scanner (page 6, lines 20-25; page 7, lines 5-10; performing character recognition of the image of the scanned application form; page 8, lines 50-52; page 9, lines 11-13; character recognition based on marks that specify target area for recognition in image); and
an output configured to output information based on the character information of the target area (page 7, lines 3-14; page 9, lines 11-13; the recognized character information recognized based on marks that specify target area and other information is output to the delivery management center).
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, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2004315116 to Tanaka in view of US 20020044686 to Yamazaki.
Regarding claim 1, Tanaka discloses a reading device comprising (PAGE 6, lines 20-29, scanner 12):
a scanner configured to read an image on a medium (PAGE 6, lines 20-29, scanner 12 reads image of application form (medium));
a processor (page 4, line 24; computer) configured to
perform character recognition to recognize character information from a target area of the image of the medium read by the scanner (page 6, lines 20-25; page 7, lines 5-10; performing character recognition of the image of the scanned application form; page 8, lines 50-52; page 9, lines 11-13; character recognition based on marks that specify target area for recognition in image); and
output information, the output information including information based on the character information (page 7, lines 3-14; the recognized character information and other information is output to the delivery management center).
However Tanaka does not disclose the output information including information identifying the target area and information based on the character information associated with each other.
Yamazaki discloses the output information including information identifying the target area and information based on the character information associated with each other (paragraph 37, 40, 42; character recognition unit 11 outputs character position information (information identifying the target area) and the character code (character information) in association).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Yamazaki to provide target area information in addition to character info.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide character position information as output to assist in synthesizing different parts of the image including the character area during output printing (paragraph 42, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 3, Tanaka discloses a label dispensing device comprising (page 6, lines 8-9; label printer):
a processor configured to (page 4, line 24; computer)
acquire, from a reader, information including information based on character information (page 6, lines 7-9, 27-29; page 7, lines 3-14; delivery management center acquires from scanner (reader) order information including character code information);
register label element information based on the character information corresponding to a label element (page 12, lines 9-12; label element include the section 133 for delivery information (label element) and other label element such as section 134 as shown in label in Fig. 10; page 7, lines 11-16; page 11, lines 11-17; delivery management database registers the order information (character information) which is used as delivery data to be associated with label element such as section 133 which corresponds to delivery data that includes order information); and
create a label based on the registered label element information (page 7, lines 11-14, 16-21; shipping label is created based on registered order information that are associated with label element section 133).
Tanaka discloses acquire the information from a reader as stated above. However Tanaka does not disclose to acquire, information including information based on character information and information identifying a target area of an image on a medium corresponding to the character information associated with each other.
Yamazaki discloses to acquire, information including information based on character information and information identifying a target area of an image on a medium corresponding to the character information associated with each other (paragraph 37, 40, 42; acquiring from the character recognition unit 11 character position information (information identifying the target area) of character image and the character code (character information) in association with character position; character image based on scanning via image input unit (reader) a document (medium)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Yamazaki to provide target area information in addition to character info.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide character position information as output to assist in synthesizing different parts of the image including the character area during output printing (paragraph 42, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 5, Tanaka discloses an information processing method comprising:
recognizing character information from a target area of an image on a medium read by a scanner (PAGE 6, lines 20-29, scanner 12 reads image of application form (medium); page 6, lines 20-25; page 7, lines 5-10; performing character recognition of the image of the scanned application form (medium) by scanner; page 8, lines 50-52; page 9, lines 11-13; character recognition based on marks that specify target area for recognition in image); and
outputting information based on the character information (page 7, lines 3-14; the recognized character information and other information is output to the delivery management center).
However Tanaka does not disclose outputting information identifying the target area.
Yamazaki discloses outputting information identifying the target area (paragraph 37, 40, 42; character recognition unit 11 outputs character position information (information identifying the target area) and the character code (character information) in association).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Yamazaki to provide target area information in addition to character info.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide character position information as output to assist in synthesizing different parts of the image including the character area during output printing (paragraph 42, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 6, Tanaka discloses an information processing method comprising:
acquiring, from a reader, information including information based on character information (page 6, lines 7-9, 27-29; page 7, lines 3-14; delivery management center acquires from scanner (reader) order information including character code information);
registering the information based on the character information corresponding to a label element (page 12, lines 9-12; label element include the section 133 for delivery information (label element) and other label element such as section 134 as shown in label in Fig. 10; page 7, lines 11-16; page 11, lines 11-17; delivery management database registers the order information (character information) which is used as delivery data to be associated with label element such as section 133 which corresponds to delivery data that includes order information); and
creating a label based on the registered information (page 7, lines 11-14, 16-21; shipping label is created based on registered order information that are associated with label element section 133).
However Tanaka does not disclose information including information based on character information associated with information identifying a target area of an image on a medium corresponding to the character information.
Yamazaki discloses information including information based on character information associated with information identifying a target area of an image on a medium corresponding to the character information (paragraph 37, 40, 42; acquiring from the character recognition unit 11 character position information (information identifying the target area) of character image and the character code (character information) in association with character position; character image based on scanning via image input unit (reader) a document (medium)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Yamazaki to provide target area information in addition to character info.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide character position information as output to assist in synthesizing different parts of the image including the character area during output printing (paragraph 42, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 10, Tanaka discloses the device according to claim 1, wherein the information based on the character information includes numerical values (page 9, lines 26-30; alphanumerical data for recognition).
Regarding claim 12, Tanaka discloses the device according to claim 3, wherein the label creation section includes a label dispenser (page 12, lines 4-11; page 16, lines 11-13; label printer prints label and outputs the label (label dispenser)).
Claim(s) 2, 8, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2004315116 to Tanaka in view of US 20020044686 to Yamazaki further in view of JP 2011145725 to Takada.
Regarding claim 2, Tanaka does not disclose the device according to claim 1, further comprising:
a storage configured to store a template in which the information identifying the target area and the information related to the target area are associated with each other.
Takada discloses further comprising:
a storage configured to store a template in which the information identifying the target area and the information related to the target area are associated with each other (paragraph 106-108; template storage 27 stores template in which top-left coordinate/bottom right coordinate (information identifying the target area) and item name (information related to the target area) in association).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Takada to provide template storage.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide template selection screen based on template information stored in memory (paragraph 146-152).
Regarding claim 8, Takada discloses the device according to claim 1, wherein the reading device includes a multifunction peripheral (paragraph 18-19; document processing device 1 is MFP including reading unit 41).
Regarding claim 11, Takada discloses the device according to claim 2, wherein the storages includes at least one of a hard disk drive or a solid state drive (paragraph 46-47; template storage 27 is inside storage 26 which can be flash memory (solid state drive)).
Claim(s) 4, 13, 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2004315116 to Tanaka in view of US 20020044686 to Yamazaki further in view of JP H1044522 to Jokura.
Regarding claim 4, Tanaka does not disclose the device according to claim 3, further comprising:
a storage configured to store a label format in which the label element and information identifying the target area are associated with each other.
Jokura discloses further comprising:
a storage configured to store a label format in which the label element and information identifying the target area are associated with each other (paragraph 22; file D4 stores print format (label format) in which data fields such as product price, name (label element) and print start position (information identifying the target area) of these elements are associated)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the system of Tanaka as taught by Jokura to provide label format storage.
The motivation to combine the references is to provide storage that stores label format for printing that stores as index format ID number which can be used to look up label format such as label size, print positions and use this information for printing the label (paragraph 35-38).
Regarding claim 13, Jokura discloses the device according to claim 4, wherein the label format includes format identification information (paragraph 22; field FD1 includes print format number (format identification information)).
Regarding claim 9, Jokura discloses the device according to claim 1, wherein the scanner includes a line sensor (paragraph 15; scanner is line sensor).
Other Prior Art Cited
14. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
JP 2010011450 to Mekawa.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENIYAM MENBERU whose telephone number is (571) 272-7465. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 10:00am-6:30pm.
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Patent Examiner
Beniyam Menberu
/BENIYAM MENBERU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
03/19/2026