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 .
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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of species S1, S4, and S7 in the reply filed on 11/18/2025 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Claims 4-8, 17, 19, and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/18/2025.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore,
“the first interval is longer than the second interval”, of claim 11
the “interval for the coated medium is longer than an interval for other medium, of claim 13
the drier, of claim 14
the ink jet image forming apparatus, of claim 15
the laminate processing apparatus, of claim 16
must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
TITLE - The Title has been updated according to the amended Specification dated 05/15/2026. The objection to the Title has been withdrawn.
JUMBO CASE - The lengthy 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 9, 10, 14-16, 18, and 21-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2022/229813 to Adachi et al. in view of US 2013/0236225 to Ogawa et al.
Regarding claim 1, Adachi teaches a heating device (9) comprising: a rotator (20); a heater (22) including a main heat generating region (40, Fig.3A) to heat the rotator; a pressurizer (21) including a conductive surface (21c, [0054]) to contact the rotator to form a nip (N) therebetween;
a charge eliminator (27 or 28) contacting the conductive surface of the pressurizer;
wherein the charge eliminator contacts the conductive surface of the pressurizer at a portion of the pressurizer outside of the main heat generating region in a longitudinal direction of the heater (20d is disposed outside a sheet passing region, therefore outside the main heat generation region; Fig. 7, 9 [0056]).
Examiner assumes arguendo that Adachi is silent about a contact part, as claimed.
Ogawa discloses a heating device (20), comprising: a rotator (21); a heater (40) including a main heat generating region to heat the rotator [0049-0051]; a pressurizer (31) to contact the rotator to form a nip (N) therebetween; a separator (32) to separate a medium from the rotator and including a contact part (32a2) contacting the rotator; wherein the contact part contacts to the rotator at a position (NP) outside a sheet passage region (PR) where a recording medium passes in a longitudinal direction of the rotator.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Adachi’s heating device to include a separator like the separator taught by Ogawa, for at least the purpose of enabling stable separation of the recording medium from the rotator while preventing damage by ensuring a desired interval between the separator and the rotator (Ogawa: [0068]).
Such modification then renders obvious, a contact part contacting the rotator and separate from the charge eliminator; wherein the contact part contacts to the rotator at a position corresponding to the portion in the longitudinal direction of the heater.
The separator of Ogawa, further renders obvious:
(claim 3) a separator (32, Fig.5) including a separation portion (32b), arranged to face downstream of the rotator in a rotation direction of the rotator, to separate a medium from the rotator, wherein: the contact part (32a2) is a part of the separator, the contact part contacts to the rotator such that a gap (I, Fig.4) is created between the separation portion and the rotator [0056];
(claim 23) wherein the separator is formed by bending a plate material (Fig.4);
(claim 24) wherein the separator is biased by a spring (33, Fig.4) such that the contact part contacts the rotator [0056];
(claim 25) wherein the separator further includes a body part (32b), and the contact part (32a2) is bent in a different direction with respect to the body part (Figs. 5 & 6).
The modification above further renders obvious:
(claim 2) The heating device according to claim 1, further comprising: a maximum medium passage region, wherein the charge eliminator contacts the pressurizer at a region (corresponding to 20d) which is outside of the region of the maximum medium passage region in the longitudinal direction of the heater (Adachi: Fig.7 & 9).
(claim 9) A fixing device (9) to fix a toner on a medium (P), comprising: the heating device according to claim 1 (Adachi: Fig.2).
(claim 10) An image forming apparatus (Adachi: Fig.1), comprising: the fixing device according to claim 9.
(claim 14) A drier, comprising: the heating device according to claim 1 (Adachi: [0094]).
(claim 15) An ink jet image forming apparatus, comprising: the drier according to claim 14 (Adachi: [0094]).
(claim 16) A laminate processing apparatus, comprising: the heating device according to claim 1 (Adachi: [0094]).
(claim 18) The heating device according to claim 1, wherein: the heater includes resistive heat generator (40) on a base (30), the pressurizer includes a pressure roller, and the rotator includes a fixing belt (Adachi: Fig.2).
(claim 21) The heating device according to claim 1, wherein the charge eliminator (27) includes a brush portion configured to contact the conductive surface of the pressurizer and a holding portion configured to hold the brush portion (Adachi: Fig.7 & 9).
(claim 22) The heating device according to claim 1, wherein the contact part contacts the rotator and does not contact the pressurizer (Ogawa: Fig.4).
(claim 26) The heating device according to claim 1, further comprising a separating plate (Ogawa:32) to separate a paper sheet from a fixing belt, the separating plate including: a body part (32b+32a1); a separation portion (edge of 32b) to contact the paper sheet; and the contact part (32a2) to scrape a surface of the fixing belt.
Claim(s) 11 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2022/229813 to Adachi et al. in view of US 2013/0236225 to Ogawa et al., as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of US 2004/0190924 to Iwasaki et al.
Regarding claims 11 and 12, Adachi as modified by Ogawa teaches the image forming apparatus according to claim 10, but is silent about changing a medium interval according to medium size.
Iwasaki discloses an image forming apparatus in which an interval between mediums of a small size is increased during continuous printing, to account for a temperature rise in a non-paper conveyance region when mediums of a small size are conveyed through the fixing device, as compared to a maximum medium size (Figs.9-10, [0066,0141, 0145]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Adachi and Iwasaki such that, in an image forming apparatus according to claim 10,
(claim 11) wherein: the image forming apparatus has an ability to print to a plurality of sizes of a medium including a first size and a maximum size, the first size is smaller than the maximum size, the image forming apparatus is configured to fix toner on the medium of the first size with a first interval between each medium of the first size to be printed, the image forming apparatus is configured to fix toner on the medium of the maximum size with a second interval between each medium of the maximum size to be printed, and wherein the first interval is longer than the second interval; and
(claim 12) wherein: when printing the first size continuously, the first interval of a latter print is longer than the first interval of a previous print
for at least the purpose of preventing thermal degradation in the fixing device.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2022/229813 to Adachi et al. in view of US 2013/0236225 to Ogawa et al., as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of JP 2007-078949 to Takada.
Regarding claim 13, Adachi as modified by Ogawa teaches the image forming apparatus according to claim 10 but is silent about an interval for coated medium.
Takada discloses an image forming apparatus in which the transfer spacing between the recording paper sheets of coated paper is made smaller than when the recording paper is regular non-coated paper (Abstract).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure an image forming apparatus according to claim 10 such that when printing on to a coated medium continuously, an interval for the coated medium is longer than an interval for other medium, for at least the purpose of preventing image defects and curling of the coated medium.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 05/15/2026 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARLENE HEREDIA whose telephone number is (571)272-8393. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30-5:30.
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, Stephanie Bloss can be reached at (571) 272-3555. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Arlene Heredia Ocasio/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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