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, 3, 5-6, 10-11, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arimura et al (U.S. Pub. 2020/0070521) in view of Fujita et al (U.S. Pub. 2021/0129569)
Regarding claims 1, 14, an ink jet recording method comprising: ejecting an ink from an ejection orifice (18) of a recording head (12) to record an image on a recording medium (Figure 4; Paragraph 0031)
Wherein the recording head includes the ejection orifice that ejects the ink; a pressure chamber (20) that communicates with the ejection orifice (Figures 4-5; Paragraphs 0031, 0054-0056)
An ejection unit that includes an ejection element (24) disposed in the pressure chamber and generating energy for ejection the ink from the ejection orifice (Figures 4-5; Paragraphs 0056-0057)
A circulation unit that includes a supply channel (27) supplying the ink to the pressure chamber and a collection channel (281, 282) collecting the ink from the pressure chamber (Figure 4; Paragraphs 0051-0054, 0061-0062)
Wherein the circulation unit further includes a circulation pump (29) causing the ink in the supply channel to flow into the collecting channel (Figure 4; Paragraphs 0051-0054, 0061-0062)
Arimura does not expressly disclose the particular composition of ink
Fujita discloses using an aqueous ink comprising a pigment and a wax particle (Paragraphs 0120, 0122-0127)
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 Fujita into the device of Arimura, for the purpose of obtaining abrasion resistance (Paragraph 0005)
Regarding claim 3, Fujita discloses wherein the pigment is at least on eselected from the group consisting of carbon black and an organic pigment (Paragraph 0149)
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 Fujita into the device of Arimura, for the purpose of obtaining abrasion resistance (Paragraph 0005)
Regarding claim 5, Fujita discloses wherein the aqueous ink further contains a water-soluble organic solvent, and the water-soluble organic solvent includes a first water-soluble organic solvent having a relative permittivity of 30.0 or less (Paragraph 0110)
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 Fujita into the device of Arimura, for the purpose of obtaining abrasion resistance (Paragraph 0005)
Regarding claim 6, Fujita discloses wherein a content % (by mass) of the water-soluble organic solvent in the aqueous ink is 25% by mass or less with respect to a total mass of the ink (Paragraph 0111)
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 Fujita into the device of Arimura, for the purpose of obtaining abrasion resistance (Paragraph 0005)
Regarding claim 10, wherein the recording head is a serial type recording head (Paragraph 0034)
Regarding claim 11, wherein the circulation unit includes a first pressure adjustment unit (31, 43) that adjusts a pressure of the supply channel; the first pressure adjustment unit includes a first valve chamber, a first pressure control chamber and a first communication port that causes the first valve chamber and the first pressure control chamber to communicate with each other; and the first valve chamber includes a first valve that opens and closes the first communication ort according to a change in pressure of the first pressure control chamber (Figure 4; Paragraphs 0069-0071)
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arimura et al (U.S. Pub. 2020/0070521) as modified by Fujita et al (U.S. Pub. 2021/0129569) and further in view of Kawabe et al (U.S. Pub. 2019/0016130)
Regarding claim 2, Kawabe discloses wherein a circulation flow rate (mL/min) of the aqueous ink inside the circulation unit is 1.0 mL/min or more to 10.0 mL/min or less (Paragraph 0018)
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 Kawabe into the device of Arimura as modified by Fujita, for the purpose of suppressing the decrease of degassing efficiency
Claim(s) 7-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arimura et al (U.S. Pub. 2020/0070521) as modified by Fujita et al (U.S. Pub. 2021/0129569) and further in view of Kawabe et al (U.S. Pub. 2024/0141194)
Regarding claim 7, Kawabe discloses wherein the aqueous ink further contains a dispersant that disperses the wax particle in the aqueous ink, and the dispersant includes an anionic dispersant and anionic dispersant (Paragraph 0023)
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 Kawabe into the device of Arimura as modified by Fujita, for the purpose of providing an aqueous ink which enables satisfactory abrasion resistance and storage stability
Regarding claim 8, Kawabe discloses wherein a mass ratio of a content (% by mass) of the anionic dispersant in the aqueous ink to a content (& by mass) of a wax in the wax particle is 0.01 times or more to 0.20 times or less (Paragraph 0023)
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 Kawabe into the device of Arimura as modified by Fujita, for the purpose of providing an aqueous ink which enables satisfactory abrasion resistance and storage stability
Regarding claim 9, Kawabe discloses a mass ratio of a content (% by mass) of the nonionic dispersant in the aqueous ink to a content (% by mass) of a wax in the wax particle is 0.10 times or more 0.30 times or less (Paragraph 0023)
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 Kawabe into the device of Arimura as modified by Fujita, for the purpose of providing an aqueous ink which enables satisfactory abrasion resistance and storage stability
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arimura et al (U.S. Pub. 2020/0070521) as modified by Fujita et al (U.S. Pub. 2021/0129569) and further in view of Ando (U.S. Pub. 2023/0024356)
Regarding claim 13, Ando discloses wherein a water absorption amount of the recording medium from a start of contact to 30 msec--1/2 in a Bristow method is 10mL/m2 or less (Paragraphs 0124, 0127)
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 Ando, for the purpose of forming a high-quality image (Paragraphs 0122-0127)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 12 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 March 4, 2026