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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/23/24 follows the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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) 1-5, 7, 10-13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wong et al. (US 2021/0368063).
Regarding claim 1, Wong teaches an image forming device comprising (image rendering device; ¶ 0018, ¶¶ 0021-0027 and ¶¶ 0046-0053, Figs. 1, 3, and 4):
a printing engine configured to print an image on a sheet (engines 408; ¶¶ 0049-0052);
a notification member (a display of the image rendering device 402; ¶ 0053, Fig. 4); and
a controller configured to perform: acquiring a consumption status including information on a consumption amount of consumable material consumed by the printing engine (print engine 304, may determine a volume of the print material consumed by the image rendering device 402; ¶ 0051); and
a notification process to control the notification member to issue a notification based on the consumption amount of consumable material, the notification including notification information related to a subject price plan in which a fee is set for consumption of consumable material (communication engine 422 may receive a notification from the SM server 424 indicating a plan for the image rendering device 402, where the plan is based on the transmitted data…the communication engine 422 may display the notification on a display…subscription fee; ¶ 0037 and ¶ 0053).
Regarding claim 2, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the notification information is related to a guidance on the subject price plan (subscription plan data 218 may comprise a list of various available plans wherein each of the plan may provide for an amount of print material or a number of media or both for a subscription fee; ¶ 0036).
Regarding claim 3, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the notification information is related to a guidance on subscription to the subject price plan for a target account currently having no subscription to any price plan (first subscription plan; ¶¶ 0036-0038).
Regarding claim 4, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the notification information is related to a guidance for changing a currently-subscribed price plan to the subject price plan, the subject price plan being selected from a plurality of specific price plans (notification details of a cost difference between a current plan and a second plan; ¶¶ 0043-0044 and ¶¶ 0065-0066, Fig. 6).
Regarding claim 5, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to perform: setting the subject price plan to a selected specific-type price plan, the selected specific-type price plan being a price plan in which a flat fee is charged for consumption of consumable material up to a first reference amount during a predetermined time period (each plan provides a predetermined amount of print material over a period of time; ¶ 0012) and an additional fee is charged for consumption of consumable material beyond the first reference amount during the predetermined time period (additional cost; ¶ 0067).
Regarding claim 7, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to further perform: a comparing process to compare a consumption value with a second reference amount set for the selected specific-type price plan, the consumption value being the consumption amount of consumable material or a time average based on the consumption amount of consumable material (print material consumption; ¶ 0067), wherein when a result of the comparing process indicates that the consumption value falls within a variation range, the controller performs the notification process with the subject price plan set to the selected specific-type price plan (notification details of a cost difference between a current plan and a second plan; ¶¶ 0043-0044 and ¶¶ 0065-0066, Fig. 6).
Regarding claim 10, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to further perform: a fee projection process to calculate a projected fee (determining first plan among a plurality of plans; ¶¶ 0060-0063, Fig. 6 606); and a comparing process to compare the projected fee with the fee of the subject price plan (compare first and second plan; ¶ 0065, Fig. 6 614), wherein when the fee of the subject price plan is less than the projected fee, the controller performs the notification process, wherein under a first situation that a target account currently has a subscription to a price plan as a current price plan, the projected fee is based on the current price plan (notification regarding a plan that may be better suited for the image rendering device; ¶ 0064) whereas under a second situation that the target account currently has no subscription to any price plan, the projected fee is a fee projected under an assumption that the second situation is maintained (not subscribed to second plan; ¶ 0064, Fig. 6 612).
Regarding claim 11, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to perform: setting the subject price plan to a selected specific-type price plan in which a predetermined fee is charged for a predetermined amount of consumable material (each plan provides a predetermined amount of print material over a period of time and has an associated cost which may be referred to as subscription fees; ¶ 0012).
Regarding claim 12, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to further perform: a comparing process to compare a consumption value with a reference amount, the consumption value being the consumption amount of consumable material or a time average based on the consumption amount (comparing second plan and a plan identified by the server based on print material consumption monitored by the server for a period of time; ¶¶0055-0056, ¶ 0066), wherein when a result of the comparing process indicates that the consumption value does not fall within a variation range (¶ 0027 and ¶ 0073), the controller performs the notification process with the subject price plan set to the selected specific-type price plan (notification; ¶ 0067).
Regarding claim 13, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 12, wherein the variation range has an upper limit and a lower limit, the upper limit and the lower limit being both based on the reference amount (¶ 0073), wherein the consumption amount of consumable material is an amount of consumable material consumed during a predetermined first time period and the time average is an average of an amount of consumable material consumed per the predetermined first time period (¶¶ 0072-0073).
Regarding claim 15, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the subject price plan in which: the fee is charged for consumption of sheets (number of standard sheets of paper; ¶ 0024); and colorant in use for printing images by the printing engine is supplied (colorant; ¶ 0023).
Regarding claim 16, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 15, wherein the consumption amount of consumable material is an amount of consumed sheets (number of standard sheets of paper; ¶ 0024), wherein the controller is configured to further perform: selecting the subject price plan from among a plurality of price plans based on a ratio of an amount of consumed colorant to the amount of consumed sheets (¶ 0037).
Regarding claim 17, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 15, wherein the consumption amount of consumable material is an amount of consumed sheets (number of standard sheets of paper; ¶ 0024), wherein the controller is configured to further perform: selecting the subject price plan from among a plurality of price plans based on a ratio of an area of a total colorant-deposited region to an area of a total sheet region, the total sheet region being a total region of all the consumed sheets, the total colorant-deposited region being a part of the total sheet region on which colorant is deposited (volume of print material consumed in printing a standard page in high resolution mode to compute the print material consumption ; ¶ 0025).
Regarding claim 18, Wong teaches the image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the printing engine is configured to performing printing on the sheet in a selected one of a low quality mode and a high quality mode in which an image quality of printing is higher than an image quality in the low quality mode (high-resolution or low-resolution printing mode; ¶ 0025), wherein when a number of times printing has been performed in the high quality mode is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, the controller performs the notification process (high-resolution printing mode in conjunction with data relating to the number of media printed by the image rendering device 106-1 to derive the print material consumption; ¶ 0025).
Regarding claim 19, Wong teaches an image forming system comprising (print environment 100; ¶¶ 0017-0030, Fig. 1):
an image forming device including (image rendering device; ¶ 0018, ¶¶ 0021-0027 and ¶¶ 0046-0053, Figs. 1, 3, and 4): a printing engine configured to print an image on a sheet (engines 408; ¶¶ 0049-0052, Fig. 4); and a notification member (a display of the image rendering device 402; ¶ 0053, Fig. 4),
a processing device configured to communicate with the image forming device (server 102; ¶ 0020 and ¶¶ 0031-0045, Fig. 2), the processing device including:
a controller configured to perform (engines 206; ¶¶ 0031-0032):
acquiring a consumption status including information on a consumption amount of consumable material consumed by the printing engine (server 102, may receive a data indicative of the print material consumption by an image rendering device; ¶ 0057, Fig. 5 504); and
a sending process to send, to the image forming device, a notification based on the consumption amount of consumable material (server 102, may generate signals to enable provision of notification corresponding to the determined first plan; ¶ 0059, Fig. 5 508), the notification including notification information related to a subject price plan in which a fee is set for consumption of consumable material (subscription plan data 218 may comprise a list of various available plans wherein each of the plan may provide for an amount of print material or a number of media or both for a subscription fee; ¶ 0036),
wherein upon receipt of the notification from the processing device, the notification member presents the notification information in the notification (communication engine 422 may receive a notification from the SM server 424 indicating a plan for the image rendering device 402, where the plan is based on the transmitted data…the communication engine 422 may display the notification on a display…subscription fee; ¶ 0037 and ¶ 0053).
Claim 20 recites similar limitation as claim 19 thus, arguments similar to that presented above for claim 19 are equally applicable to claim 20.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 8, 9, and 14 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sato (US 2023/0315347) teaches a technology for prompting a user to subscribe to a printer-related service.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT YIP whose telephone number is (571)270-5244. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00-5:00 PM PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Akwasi M. Sarpong can be reached at (571) 270-3438. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENT YIP/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
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