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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
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.
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, 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.
Claims 1, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2010/0165387 A1 (hereinafter “Mizumukai”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2010/0157392 A1 (hereinafter “Tsuzuki”).
Regarding claim 1, Mizumukai discloses an image formation apparatus (multifunction peripherals 10A and 10B (paragraph [0027])) comprising:
- a first image formation unit configured to form a first image on a print medium being conveyed in the image formation apparatus (image on original document scanned, and output image generated based on the scanned image (paragraph [0032]); image forming unit 39 forms an image on a sheet of paper 35 conveyed from paper tray 36 (paragraph [0034])); and
- a second image formation unit configured to form a second image, in a case where the first image is normally formed, and not to form the second image in a case where the first image is not normally formed and the print medium is being conveyed (image forming unit prints an image on a recording medium, and if the image was printed normally, additional data is written into a first storing unit of the recording medium, and prevents the additional data from being written to the first storing unit when the image is not printed normally (paragraph [0107])).
Mizumukai does not expressly disclose forming the second image on the first image formed on the print medium. In Mizumukai, the second image (additional image) is formed on the first storing unit (RFID tag) of the print medium.
Tsuzuki discloses a copier that prints an additional image “Copy” on an RFID sheet including an image, upon completion of a copy operation (paragraph [0053], Fig. 8). In view of Tsuzuki, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that additional image could be printed on a printed document including an RFID tag, as opposed to providing the additional image on the RFID tag. This allows a user to visually determine that the printing process was completed normally. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of Applicant’s invention, to have modified the teaching of Mizumukai by printing the additional information on the printed document, as taught by Tsuzuki.
Claims 2, 4, 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mizumukai in view of Tsuzuki as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2019/0121586 A1 (hereinafter “Tsukamoto”).
Regarding claim 2, neither Mizumukai nor Tsuzuki expressly disclose wherein in a case where the first image is not normally formed, the second image formation unit forms a pattern different from the second image.
Tsukamoto discloses an image forming apparatus including an inspection device. When an abnormality is detected from a read image by image reader 129 in image inspection, additional information former 124 forms additional information and combines the additional information with the read image, the additional information being represented by marks surrounding the abnormality (paragraph [0200]). These marks X3 and X4 (Fig. 24) are different from the information in Mizumukai. Providing the additional information in this manner enables a person to easily spot abnormalities, which might not be apparent in the printed sheet in Mizumukai. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of Applicant’s invention, to have modified the combined teachings of Mizumukai and Tsuzuki by providing for the combining of image data and additional information indicating an abnormality, as taught by Tsukamoto.
Regarding claim 4, Tsukamoto discloses wherein the pattern is information indicating that the first image is not normally formed (additional information represented by marks surrounding an abnormality (paragraph [0200])).
Regarding claim 5, Tsukamoto discloses wherein the second image formation unit forms the pattern at a position where the first image is formed (additional information represented by marks surrounding an abnormality (paragraph [0200]); abnormality can obviously appear anywhere on a sheet containing the image (Fig. 24)).
Regarding claim 8, Tsukamoto further comprises a first reading unit configured to read the first image after the first image formation unit has formed the first image on the print medium (image reader 129 reads image stored in storage 125 (paragraph [0200]), the storage having stored a printed sheet read by reader 30 (paragraph [0099])),
- wherein the second image formation unit forms the pattern based on a result of reading by the reading unit (when an abnormality is detected from a read image by image reader in image inspection, the additional information former forms additional information and combines the additional information with the read image (paragraph [0200])).
Claims 3 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mizumukai in view of Tsuzuki and Tsukamoto as applied to claims 2 and 5 above, and further in view of Japanese Application Publication JP 2019-217746 A (hereinafter “Tanaka”).
Regarding claim 3, neither Mizumukai, Tsuzuki nor Tsukamoto expressly
disclose wherein the pattern is a two-dimensional code.
Tanaka discloses an image formation device that detects a defect in an image on a continuous recording medium based on read image acquired by an image reading unit (paragraph [0009]) and prints defect position information using a one- or two-dimensional code (paragraph [0020]). One of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of Applicant’s invention, would have recognized this as one of several known methods of providing information regarding the position of defects on an image, and that the method taught by Tanaka could be used as an alternative to the teaching of Tsukamoto to obtain the similar result of identifying the position of a defect on an image printed on a recording medium. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of Applicant’s invention, to have modified the combined teachings of Mizumukai, Tsuzuki and Tsukamoto by printing defect position information using a two-dimensional code, as taught by Tanaka.
Regarding claim 6, Tanaka further comprises a determination unit configured to determine whether there is an area sufficient to form the pattern at the position where the first image is formed (control unit may change a printing position of the defect position information based on a position of an image printed on the continuous recording medium (paragraph [0019])).
Allowable Subject Matter
10. Claims 7, 9 and 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.
11. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 7, the cited prior art fails to disclose or suggest Applicant’s image formation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein with the print medium being transparent, the second image formation unit performs image formation in which a background or periphery of the pattern is filled in a specific color.
Regarding claim 9, the cited prior art fails to disclose or suggest Applicant’s image formation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein image formation on the print medium is not stopped even in a case where the second image formation unit does not form the second image.
Regarding claim 10, the cited prior art fails to disclose or suggest Applicant’s image formation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:
- a second reading unit configured to read the pattern after the second image formation unit has formed the second image on the print medium; and
- a control unit configured to, with the pattern read by the second reading unit, perform control to stop the image formation on the print medium.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS D LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-7436. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Abderrahim Merouan can be reached at 571-270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS D LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683