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 .
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the receipt of Preliminary Amendment filed 26 July 2024.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed on 8/22/24, the requirements 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d) are met.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited on a Form PTO 1449 have been considered.
Specification
The specification has been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. However, the applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Specifically, Claim 1 recites, and its dependent Claims 2-10 incorporate, inter alia, “a mixture of the drying procedure to be applied for drying the ink to be used within the image to be printed is determined based at least on the cell-dependent amounts of infrared radiation to be applied and a moving speed of the printed product, wherein the mixture comprises at least a ratio of an overall amount of infrared radiation and an overall amount of convective heating”. A “ratio” of two values is a dimensionless number. It can only be determined if both values have the same units. The specification does not contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to predetermine an overall amount of infrared radiation and an overall amount of convective heating in the same units (e.g. J, J/m2 etc.) so as to allow “a mixture of the drying procedure to be applied” with a predefined “ratio of an overall amount of infrared radiation and an overall amount of convective heating”.
For example, Walker et al. (U.S. 2014/0210919 A1) teach that “the amount of convective heat transfer is a function of differences between temperatures” (§0039). Accordingly, an overall amount of convective heating provided by the convective heating device 26 of the instant invention, as illustrated in Fig. 1, will depend at least on both the temperature and flow of the hot air that the convective heating device 26 supplies to the printed image, and the varying temperatures of the ink, substrate, and conveyor belt. These varying temperatures of the ink, substrate, and conveyor belt, in turn, depend at least on the power applied to the IR heater 24, moving speed of the conveyor, and the amount and lightness of the applied ink. Controlling all these parameters so as to yield “a mixture of the drying procedure to be applied for drying the ink” with a specific predetermined “ratio of an overall amount of infrared radiation and an overall amount of convective heating” is not described in the instant Specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Gaab et al. (US 2020/0023653 A1) disclose a printing machine with a heating element whose portions can be controlled independently. Tandon et al. (US 20060219715 A1) disclose curing imprinted material by a combination of radio and/or microwave frequency energy and convective thermal heating. Fromm et al. (US 9440459 B1) disclose a printing system with a digitally addressable dryer array.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER D SHENDEROV whose telephone number is (571)270-7049. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas X Rodrigues can be reached at (571) 431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALEXANDER D SHENDEROV/Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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