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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Group I and Species C, claims 1 and 4-15 in the reply filed on 16 January 2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)). Claims 2, 3, and 16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12 June 2024, have been considered.
Drawings
The drawings received on 12 June 2024 are accepted.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Examiner’s Note
The examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record in the body of this action for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. Applicant should consider the entire prior art as applicable as to the limitations of the claims. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the response, to consider fully the entire references as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 8, 10-12, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Domae (US 9,616,673) in view of Sasada et al. (US 2014/0287206).
With respect to claim 1, Domae discloses an ink-jet recording apparatus comprising an ink-jet recording head including:
an ejection port (Fig. 1, element N) for ejecting the ink (Column 7, lines 24-25),
a pressure chamber (Column 1, line 45, i.e. refer to JP 06-183024 at paragraph 0035) communicating with the ejection port (JP 06-183024 at paragraph 0035) and including therein a recording element substrate (JP 06-183024 at Fig. 4, element 62) configured to generate energy for ejecting the ink (JP 06-183024 at paragraph 0035),
a supply channel (Fig. 1, element 2) communicating with the pressure chamber and configured to supply the ink to the pressure chamber (Column 7, lines 29-31), and
a temperature adjusting unit (Fig. 13, element 104) configured to heat the ink (Column 2, lines 27-31).
However, Domae fails to disclose the ink contains titanium oxide and has a viscosity of 8 mPa.s or more at 25oC.
Sasada discloses a white ink composition for inkjet recording (Abstract), the ink contains titanium oxide (paragraph 0330 and Table 1) and has a viscosity of 8 mPa.s or more at 25oC (paragraph 0253).
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the white ink composition disclosed by Sasada in the liquid jet unit of Domae for inkjet recording. The motivation for doing so would have been “The present invention provides a white ink composition for inkjet recording that may allow the formation of an image excellent in concealability and have excellent re-dispersibility and excellent nozzle maintainability, an ink set for multilayer formation including the white ink composition and a color ink composition including a colorant of a hue other than white, an image forming method using the white ink composition, and a printed matter having an image formed by the image forming method” (paragraph 0018).
With respect to claim 4, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 1 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 1, element 1) further includes a collecting channel (Domae at Fig. 1, element 3) communicating with the pressure chamber (Domae citing JP 06-183024 at paragraph 0035) and configured to collect the ink from the pressure chamber (Domae at Column 7, lines 31-34).
With respect to claim 6, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 4 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 1, element 1) further includes a pump (Domae at Fig. 1, element P) configured to cause the ink in the collecting channel (Domae at Fig. 1, element 3) to flow into the supply channel (Domae at Fig. 1, element 2; Column 7, lines 45-61).
With respect to claim 8, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 6 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 11, element 1) is configured to eject the ink while scanning in a scanning direction (Domae at Column 20, line 17 – Column 21, line 18).
With respect to claim 10, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 4 above disclose in the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 5, element 1), a plurality of the ejection ports (Domae at Fig. 5, element N for elements H1 to H4) are arrayed in an array direction to form an ejection port array (Domae at Fig. 11, element 10), the ink-jet recording head includes a plurality of the pressure chambers (see claim 1 above for duplicate parts), a plurality of the supply channels (see claim 1 above for duplicate parts), and a plurality of the collecting channels (see claim 4 above for duplicate parts) so as to correspond to the plurality of ejection ports (see claim 1 above for duplicate parts), a common supply channel (Domae at Fig. 5, element J1) configured to supply the ink to the plurality of supply channels and a common collecting channel (Domae at Fig. 5, element J2) configured to collect the ink from the plurality of collecting channels extend in the array direction, and an end portion of at least one selected from the common supply channel and the common collecting channel extends to an outside of an end portion (Domae at Fig. 5, element K) of the ejection port array (Domae at Column 13, lines 8-15).
With respect to claim 11, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 10 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 5, element 1) includes a plurality of supply ports (Domae at Fig. 5, element J1 connected to elements H1 to H4) configured to supply the ink to the common supply channel and a plurality of collection ports (Domae at Fig. 5, element J2 connected to elements H1 to H4) configured to collect the ink from the common collecting channel, and at least one or more of the supply ports and the collection ports are disposed outside the ejection port array (Domae at Fig. 11, elements K, K’; Domae at Column 13, lines 8-15).
With respect to claim 12, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 6 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 1, element 1) further includes a first pressure adjusting unit (Domae at Fig. 1, element S) configured to adjust a pressure (Domae at Column 7, line 50 – Column 8, line 8) of the ink in the supply channel (Domae at Fig. 1, element 2).
With respect to claim 15, Domae in view of Sasada, as applied to claim 12 above disclose the ink-jet recording head (Domae at Fig. 2, element 1) further includes a second pressure adjusting unit (Domae at Fig. 2, element R) configured to adjust a pressure (Domae at Column 9, line 44 – Column 10, line 20) of the ink in the collecting channel (Domae at Fig. 2, element 3).
Allowable Subject Matter
1. Claim 5 is 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. The primary reasons for allowance for claim 5 is that applicant’s claimed invention includes an ink-jet recording apparatus having an ink-jet recording head including a supply channel, a temperature adjusting unit, and a collecting channel, where the temperature adjusting unit is provided in each of the collecting channel and the supply channel, and energy applied to the temperature adjusting unit provided in the supply channel is larger than energy applied to the temperature adjusting unit provided in the collecting channel. It is this limitation, expressed in the claimed combination not found, taught, or suggested in the prior art that makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
2. Claim 7 is 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. The primary reasons for allowance for claim 7 is that applicant’s claimed invention includes an ink-jet recording apparatus having an ink-jet recording head including a supply channel, a pressure chamber, a collecting channel, and a pump, where an ink circulation path where the ink circulates in the ink-jet recording head, the ink circulation path including the pump, the supply channel, the pressure chamber, and the collecting channel, has a volume of 30 mL or less. It is this limitation, expressed in the claimed combination not found, taught, or suggested in the prior art that makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
3. Claim 9 is objected to for being dependent upon claim 7.
4. Claim 13 is 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. The primary reasons for allowance for claim 13 is that applicant’s claimed invention includes an ink-jet recording apparatus having an ink-jet recording head including a first pressure adjusting unit, where the first pressure adjusting unit includes a first valve chamber, a first pressure control chamber, a first opening that communicates between the first valve chamber and the first pressure control chamber, and a first valve configured to be capable of opening and closing the first opening. It is this limitation, expressed in the claimed combination not found, taught, or suggested in the prior art that makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
5. Claim 14 is objected to for being dependent upon claim 13.
Conclusion
In view of the foregoing, the above claims have failed to patentably distinguish over the applied art.
The remaining references listed on forms 892 and 1449 have been reviewed by the examiner and are considered to be cumulative to or less material than the prior art references relied upon in the rejection above.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Geoffrey Mruk whose telephone number is (571)272-2810. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4:30 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricardo Magallanes can be reached at (571) 272-5960. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GEOFFREY S MRUK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 03/18/2026
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