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) 1-2, 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yokota et al (U.S. Pub. 2010/0085396)
Regarding claims 1, 7, an ink supplying mechanism comprising: an ink container (102) containing ink
An ink tank (120, 130) storing the ink supplied from the ink container to a recording head (50) (Figure 9; Paragraphs 0086, 0096-0097; 0144-0147)
A decompressing part (204) decompressing the inside of the ink tank (Figure 9; Paragraphs 0140-0141)
A degassing channel (200) circulating the ink flowed out from the ink tank and flowing the ink into the ink tank (Figure 9; Paragraphs 0140-0141); wherein, to the recording head, a plurality of the ink tanks (120, 130) are arranged in parallel (Figure 9)
When one ink tank (130) among the plurality of ink tanks is used for printing, in a state that the inside of the other ink tank (120) is decompressed by the decompressing part, the ink inside the other ink tank is circulated by using the degassing channel to perform degassing operation of degassing the ink inside the other ink tank (Figure 9; Paragraphs 0140-0142)
Regarding claim 2, a start timing of the degassing operation of the other ink tank is determined on the basis of an ink remaining amount and/or a dissolved oxygen amount of the ink in the one ink tank (Paragraph 0129; when the deaeration level is low, valve 202 opens to allow for ink circulation), and/or the ink remaining amount and/or the dissolved oxygen amount of the ink in the other ink tank (Figure 9; Paragraphs 0140-0142)
Regarding claim 4, the ink remaining amount in the one ink tank is measured during printing (Paragraph 0060)
Regarding claim 5, the dissolved oxygen amount of the ink in the one ink tank is measured during printing or waiting for printing (Paragraphs 0129-0131)
Regarding claim 6, a degassing pump (Figure 9; 128) common to the plurality of ink tanks in the degassing channel; wherein the degassing operation of each of the plurality of ink tanks is performed by using the degassing pump (Figure 9; Paragraph 0147)
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) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yokota et al (U.S. Pub. 2010/0085396) in view of Stockle et al (U.S. Pub. 2019/0143708)
Regarding claim 3, Stockle discloses it is known in the art to start timing of the degassing operation of the other ink tank is determined on the basis of a printing frequency of a user (Paragraph 0036; depends on the frequency of the activation of the negative pressure pump, thus depends directly on the quantity of ink that is transported from the supply container into the negative pressure container)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teaching of Stockle into the device of Yokota, for the purpose of reducing the risk of nozzle failures due to gas inclusions
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 December 19, 2025