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 .
The indicated allowability of claims 1-14 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to Nobuko et al. [JP 2003057901 A], and Ueno [US 20090245870]. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 8, and 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nobuko et al.
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Nobuko et al. disclose an image forming apparatus [Fig. 1] comprising a driving unit [30] including vibration-proof mechanism [20] configured to apply a driving force to a photosensitive drum [4]; wherein said driving unit including a gear train [33] having a shaft joint [35] configured to engage with the photosensitive drum and transmit the driving force to the photosensitive drum [Fig. 4], a first driving frame [15] having a first holding portion configured to hold a shaft joint side of the gear train [lower part shown in Fig. 4], a second driving frame [31] disposed opposite to the first driving frame and having a second holding portion configured to hold a side of the gear train opposite to the shaft joint side and be located coaxially with the first holding portion [upper part shown in Fig. 4], a first driving frame wall portion [21] configured to extend in an axial direction of the gear train from an end of a flat portion provided with the first holding portion of the first driving frame toward the second driving frame [21 extends from a side end of frame 15 in a longitudinal direction toward the second frame 31 shown on the left side of Fig. 4], a second driving frame wall portion [the wall portion on the right of the first wall portion 21 shown in Fig. 4] configured to extend in the axial direction from an end of a flat portion [the corner of 31 as shown in Fig. 4] of the second driving frame provided with the second holding portion toward the first driving frame and face the first driving frame wall portion with a gap therebetween in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction [the gap where the elastic member 22 is compressed shown in Fig. 4], and an elastic member [22] is compressed and held between the first driving frame wall portion and the second driving frame wall portion.
Regarding claim 8, Nobuko et al. disclose the first and second driving frame wall portions are provided at a location other than a fastening portion that fastens the driving frames [Fig. 4].
Regarding claim 11, Nobuko et al. disclose a body frame , wherein the driving unit is attached to the body frame and the second driving frame is disposed to face the body frame via the first driving frame in the axial direction [Fig. 2].
Regarding claim 12, Nobuko et al. disclose the driving unit further including a driving source [32] configured to apply the driving force to the gear train, and the driving source is held by the second driving frame [Fig. 3].
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 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nobuko et al. in view of Ueno.
Nobuko et al., as discussed above, disclose the claimed invention except for the image forming apparatus including a plurality of photosensitive drums.
Ueno discloses a color image forming apparatus [Fig. 1] comprising a plurality of photosensitive drums [71], and a drive transmission system for driving the plurality of photosensitive drums [Paragraph 0039].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have the image forming apparatus disclosed by Nobuko et al. having a plurality of photosensitive drums as taught by Ueno for the purpose of producing images with different colors.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5, 7, 9, 10 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.
Prior Art
10. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
- Omura [6,055,399] discloses an image forming apparatus.
Contact Information
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examiner should be directed to HOAN H TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-2141.
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/HOAN H TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852 03/02/26