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 .
2. This office action is responsive to the application Nº 18/785,319 filed on July 26th, 2024 in which claims 1-13 are pending and ready for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO-1449. These IDS have been considered.
Drawings
4. The examiner contends that the drawings submitted on 07/26/2024 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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 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.
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-3 and 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Yajima (JP 2007105927).
8. Regarding independent claim 1: Yajima disclosed a printing control apparatus (see Fig. 6) comprising:
an illumination (Fig. 6, references 151, 152) configured to irradiate light on an area where a print head performs printing onto a print medium ([0037], lines 9-11); and
at least one memory ([0043], lines 9-10) and at least one processor ([0043], lines 9-11) which function as:
a control unit ([0054], lines 1-7) configured to control switching of the illumination between a lighting state and a lighting off state according to a particular user operation during printing performed by the print head ([0041], lines 1-6 and [0035], lines 1-3).
9. Regarding claim 2: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the particular user operation is an operation performed on a particular display item ([0041], lines 1-3; also see Fig. 6, reference 3), and wherein the printing control apparatus further comprises a display control unit ([0054], lines 3-4) configured to perform control for displaying the particular display item in a state where the particular user operation can be accepted during the printing ([0041], lines 1-3).
10. Regarding claim 3: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit is configured to perform control for changing the display form or the presence or absence of the display of the particular display item according to whether or not it is a state where the particular user operation can be accepted ([0044], lines 7-10; the menu option to switch on/off the light during printing is not available when the printer is not ready for printing).
11. Regarding claim 6: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit does not accept the particular user operation in a case of an error state ([0044], lines 7-10; the missing recording medium as an error state).
12. Regarding claim 7: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit configured to be able to set one of at least two of the following setting values: a first setting value for dynamically switching the illumination between lighting and lighting off according to a state of the printing control apparatus ([0041], lines 8-10), a second setting value for causing the illumination to turn on the lighting ([0041], lines 1-3), and a third setting value for causing the illumination to turn off the lighting ([0041], lines 1-3).
13. Regarding claim 8: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the control unit performs control for changing a setting of the setting unit during the printing according to the particular user operation ([0041], lines 1-3).
14. Regarding claim 9: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the setting values that can be set by the setting unit include the first through the third setting values ([0041], lines 1-3 and 8-10).
15. Regarding claim 10: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the control unit controls the illumination to temporarily turn on the lighting during the printing according to the particular user operation without changing the setting value set by the setting unit ([0041], lines 8-10; after the user defined time, the lighting is turned off without further action from the user).
16. Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Yajima (JP 2007105927).
17. Regarding independent claim 12: Yajima disclosed a control method ([0001], line 3) for a printing control apparatus (see Fig. 6) including an illumination (Fig. 6, references 151, 152) configured to irradiate light on an area where a print head performs printing onto a print medium ([0037], lines 9-11), the control method comprising:
controlling ([0054], lines 1-7) switching of the illumination between a lighting state and a lighting off state according to a particular user operation during printing performed by the print head ([0041], lines 1-6 and [0035], lines 1-3).
18. Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Yajima (JP 2007105927).
19. Regarding independent claim 13: Yajima disclosed a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ([0043], lines 9-10) storing a program ([0001], lines 3-4) for causing a computer ([0043], lines 9-11) to perform:
irradiating light with an illumination (Fig. 6, references 151, 152) on an area where a print head performs printing onto a print medium ([0037], lines 9-11), and
controlling ([0054], lines 1-7) switching of the illumination between a lighting state and a lighting off state according to a particular user operation during printing performed by the print head ([0041], lines 1-6 and [0035], lines 1-3).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
20. 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 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.
21. 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 of this title, 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.
22. Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yajima (JP 2007-105927), in view of Kimura et al. (US Pub. Nº 2006/0092459).
23. Regarding claim 11: Yajima disclosed the printing control apparatus according to claim 7.
Yajima is silent about wherein the control unit controls the switching of the illumination between the lighting state and the lighting off state during the printing according to an instruction from an external apparatus to change the setting value set by the setting unit.
Kimura et al. disclosed changing setting values set by a setting unit in a printing apparatus, by instruction sent from an external apparatus ([0018], lines 2-7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Kimura et al. with those of Yajima by allowing setting values to be set from an external apparatus in order to facilitate the entering of setting information for the user as disclosed by Kimura et al. in paragraph [0019].
Allowable Subject Matter
24. Claims 4-5 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
25. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOVI M. AMEH whose telephone number is (571)272-4578. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
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27. 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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/YAOVI M AMEH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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