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 § 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) 1-2, 7-8, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koganehira et al (U.S. Pub. 2020/0410311) in view of Shirota et al (U.S. Pat. 6,547,382)
Regarding claims 1, 11, Koganehira discloses an ink jet recording method using an ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a first ink storage portion (431) that has an openable and closable ink inlet port (42) and that is refillable with an aqueous ink (Paragraph 0087) from the ink inlet port (Figures 3-6; Paragraph 0029)
A second ink storage portion (liquid will be stored within the recording head via tube 18, for ejection) that is connected to the first ink storage portion via a tube (18) and that stores the aqueous ink (Figure 6; Paragraphs 0025, 0032, 0044)
A recording head (17) that is connected to the second ink storage portion and that has an ejection orifice formed to eject the aqueous ink supplied from the second ink storage portion (Figure 6; Paragraph 0025)
Recording an image by applying the aqueous ink ejected from the ejection orifice to a recording medium (Paragraph 0025).
Koganehira fails to disclose wherein the aqueous ink comprises a black ink containing a carbon black and an acrylic resin particle, and a color ink containing an organic pigment, and a content P1 (% by mass) of the carbon black in the black ink and a content P2 (% by mass) of the organic pigment in the color ink satisfy a relationship of the following expression (1): P1 ≤ P2…. (1).
Shirota discloses wherein the aqueous ink comprises a black ink containing a carbon black and an acrylic resin particle (Table 1; Column 11, Lines 5-25), and a color ink containing an organic pigment
A content P1 (% by mass) of the carbon black in the black ink (content of the carbon black in the ink is 5% by mass; Column 11, Line 65 – Column 12, Line 5) and a content P2 (% by mass) of the organic pigment in the color ink (concentration of the organic pigment in the ink is up to 20% by mass; Column 5, Lines 49-56) satisfy a relationship of the following expression (1): P1 ≤ P2…. (1)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Shirota into the device of Koganehira, for the purpose of forming an image with stably satisfying requirements for characteristics such as feathering, bleeding, a fixing property and color tone (Column 1, Lines 48-54)
Regarding claim 2, Shirota discloses wherein, in the black ink, a content R1 (% by mass) of the acrylic resin particle is 0.2 times or more to 1.3 times or less the content P1 (% by mass) of the carbon black in mass ratio (Table 1; Column 11, Lines 5-35; Abstract; Column 4, Lines 24-44)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Shirota into the device of Koganehira, for the purpose of forming an image with stably satisfying requirements for characteristics such as feathering, bleeding, a fixing property and color tone (Column 1, Lines 48-54)
Regarding claim 7, Shirota discloses wherein the carbon black has a BET specific surface area of 350 m²/g or less (Column 5, Lines 15-30)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Shirota into the device of Koganehira, for the purpose of forming an image with stably satisfying requirements for characteristics such as feathering, bleeding, a fixing property and color tone (Column 1, Lines 48-54)
Regarding claim 8, Shirota discloses wherein DBP oil absorption f the carbon black is 180 mL/100 g or less (Column 5, Lines 15-30)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Shirota into the device of Koganehira, for the purpose of forming an image with stably satisfying requirements for characteristics such as feathering, bleeding, a fixing property and color tone (Column 1, Lines 48-54)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6, 9-10 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON S UHLENHAKE whose telephone number is (571)272-5916. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 January 27, 2026