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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-12 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statements filed on 08/13/2024 and 10/21/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and have been considered. An initialed copy of the Form 1449 is enclosed herewith.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. Examiner suggests that title maybe changed to provide more description regarding the instant invention. Therefore, a new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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 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.
Claims 1-7 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akihiko Tokuda, JP 2020-107241 in view of Takeo et al., US 2020/0089440.
Regarding claim 1, Tokuda discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that are executable by a computer of an information processing device (“present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of each of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more computers in the system or apparatus. It can also be realized by a process in which the processor reads and executes the program”, paragraph 117),
the instructions supporting a general-purpose print program incorporated in advance (print control program for realizing each module, component, and application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and executing the program by the CPU 201 such that client computer with CPU 201 includes common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program) in advance, paragraph 67, 24-33) in an operating system of the information processing device (OS 210 manages and controls the client computer 101, paragraphs 20, 25),
the instructions being configured to, when executed by the computer, cause the information processing device to (“each operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is realized by the OS 210 reading a program for realizing each module, component, or application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and causing the CPU 201 to execute the program”, paragraph 51):
obtain specific information to identify a selected printing device (“OS 210 acquires the HWID, which is the identification information for identifying the printing apparatus, from the target printer. The HWID acquired here is an identifier that differs for each model and model of the printing apparatus, and is identification information used to specify the type of the printing apparatus”, paragraph 56);
obtain capability information indicating capabilities of the selected printing device (detailed print setting UI unit 352 displays the detailed print setting dialog based on PrintCapabilities that are generated based on the configuration module 304, wherein, configuration module 304 is a module that creates and changes printer capability information of the registered/selected target printing device, paragraphs 72, 48, 31);
in response to receiving a processing request from the general-purpose print program (common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program, wherein, UI 352 with print extension application 350 is executed in response to reception of a user operation for starting the print extension application 350 (such as advanced settings event issued by the OS), status display of the registered printing device is executed, such as displaying UI for print settings on the basis of acquired PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities, paragraph 48), determine whether the selected printing device is printer setting based on the obtained specific information (OS 210 receives a print setting display event when the user executes a print command on an application having a print output function and it is determined whether to display the simple print setting dialog 700 as shown in fig. 7a or detailed print setting dialog 720 of the print extension application 350 as shown in fig. 7b based on the type of printer setting such as operation of certain buttons wherein, detailed print setting UI based on obtained specific PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities is acquired and displayed, paragraphs 68-72),
and perform a display process to display, on a display of the information processing device (display I/F 206 controls display of a screen on the display 207 which functions as a display unit that displays information to the user, paragraph 22, 48), different print setting screens depending on whether the selected printing device is type of printer setting (print setting dialog 700, fig. 7a with simple print settings or detailed print setting dialog 720, fig. 7b with detailed print settings based on certain button operation, paragraphs 68-72), the display process comprising:
a first display process to display a first print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the printer setting, the first print setting screen being configured to accept print settings based on the obtained capability information (OS 210 receiving a print settings display event generated as a result of a user executing a print command in an application provided with a print output function and the OS 210 with the print extension application 350 displays an advanced print settings dialog 720 as shown in fig. 7b when 705 is clicked, the advanced print settings UI displays the advanced print settings dialog on the basis of PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities, which are generated on the basis of a function text file of the designated printing device from among file groups 313 and 314 for accepting staple or tint block, etc., settings which are stored in an application storage area 355, paragraphs 68-79);
and a second display process to display a second print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is the printer setting, the second print setting screen being configured to accept print settings based on common capabilities of printing devices (OS 210 receiving a print settings display event generated as a result of a user executing a print command in an application provided with a print output function, wherein, when button 705 is not clicked, the OS 210 displays a simple print settings dialog 700, fig. 7a, which allows currently used printing device settings to be selected via the simple print settings dialog 700 such as common capabilities of printing devices which include paper size settings, copy number settings, etc., paragraph 68).
Tokuda fails to explicitly disclose in response to receiving a processing request, determine whether selected printing device is a virtual printer based on the obtained specific information, the virtual printer being provided on a server on a network and connectable with the information processing device, the server being configured to receive and store a print job sent to the virtual printer and to send the stored print job to a printing device connected with the server in response to a request from the printing device; and perform a display process to display, on a display, different print setting screens depending on whether the selected printing device is the virtual printer, the display process comprising: a first display process to display a first print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the virtual printer, the first print setting screen being configured to accept print settings and a second display process to display a second print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, the second print setting screen being configured to accept print settings based on common capabilities of printing devices connectable with the server.
However, Takeo teaches in response to receiving a processing request, determine whether selected printing device is a virtual printer based on the obtained specific information (when a print job request is received from the information processing apparatus, the printer performs a printing process, wherein, print data is transmitted from an information processing apparatus not directly to a printer, but to a cloud server which serves as one virtual printer associated with a plurality of printers to make use of a logical sum or a logical product of the capabilities of the plurality of printers and it is determined whether a cloud server is used as a virtual printer having printing capabilities defined by a logical sum of the capabilities of the printers for checking, based on the logical sum of the capabilities, whether or not printing with print settings is inexecutable by the capabilities of a plurality of printers, paragraphs 5-7, 51),
the virtual printer being provided on a server on a network and connectable with the information processing device (printers 110a, 110b, and 110c, and the information processing apparatuses 130 are capable of communicating with the virtual printer 120 implemented by a cloud server which provides cloud services via the Internet 103, paragraphs 47-48), the server being configured to receive and store a print job sent to the virtual printer (print data is once transmitted to the virtual printer 120 via the Internet 103, and stored in the virtual printer 120, paragraph 53)
and to send the stored print job to a printing device connected with the server in response to a request from the printing device (a request is sent from the printer to the cloud server, for pulling the print data stored in the cloud server, and then the print data is printed, paragraphs 5, 53);
and perform a display process to display, on a display, different print setting screens depending on whether the selected printing device is the virtual printer (print screen controller 3311 displays the print settings screen in response to a call from the application 3301. The user configures the print settings on the print settings screen, and performs printing. The items of the print settings displayed on the print settings screen are set within a range of print settings which can be provided based on the capabilities information of the virtual printer 120, paragraph 117 and paragraphs 213-216 showing different print setting screen), the display process comprising:
a first display process to display a first print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the virtual printer, the first print setting screen being configured to accept print settings and a second display process to display a second print setting screen on the display in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, the second print setting screen being configured to accept print settings based on common capabilities of printing devices connectable with the server (print settings screens 1110 and 1120 are displayed for the case in which printing devices 110a and 110b are already registered under the virtual printer 120, and when Printer (1) is selected by a user on the printer selection section 1102, printer functions provided to the information processing apparatus 130 by the virtual printer 120 are displayed in an abstracted state such that when AND (logical product) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as not the virtual printer based on shared capabilities), there is displayed a first screen for setting functions which can be set to all of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120. On the other hand, as displayed on the UI screen 1120, in a case where OR (logical sum of the OR capabilities) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as the virtual printer based on shared OR capabilities), there is displayed a second screen for setting functions which can be set to at least just one of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120 such as accepting setting functions based on common capabilities (i.e., stapling, punching, etc.) of printing devices connectable with the cloud server operating as virtual printer, paragraphs 213-218).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 2, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches in response to receiving the processing request from the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program)
when a printing device selection is made to specify the selected printing device, determine whether the selected printing device is the virtual printer based on the obtained specific information (Takeo, when a print job request is received from the information processing apparatus, the printer performs a printing process, wherein, print data is transmitted from an information processing apparatus not directly to a printer, but to a cloud server which serves as one virtual printer associated with a plurality of printers to make use of a logical sum or a logical product of the capabilities of the plurality of printers and it is determined whether a cloud server is used as a virtual printer having printing capabilities defined by a logical sum of the capabilities of the printers for checking, based on the logical sum of the capabilities, whether or not printing with print settings is inexecutable by the capabilities of a plurality of printers, paragraphs 5-7, 51).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 3, Tokuda further discloses wherein the general-purpose print program is configured to (Tokuda, print control program for realizing each module, component, and application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and executing the program by the CPU 201 such that client computer with CPU 201 includes common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program) in advance, paragraph 67, 24-33), when executed by the computer, cause the information processing device to display a general-purpose print setting screen on the display (Tokuda, OS 210 receives a print setting display event when the user executes a print command on an application having a print output function and it is determined whether to display the simple print setting dialog 700 as shown in fig. 7a, paragraph 68),
and wherein the instructions are further configured to, when executed by the computer, cause the information processing device to: in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the printer setting, perform, in the first display process, generating first display data for additionally displaying, on the general-purpose print setting screen, contents of setting items in print settings reflecting the obtained capability information, and passing the generated first display data to the general-purpose print program, thereby causing the general-purpose print setting screen according to the first display data to be displayed as the first print setting screen on the display via the general-purpose print program (OS 210 receiving a print settings display event generated as a result of a user executing a print command in an application provided with a print output function and the OS 210 with the print extension application 350 displays an advanced print settings dialog 720 as shown in fig. 7b when 705 is clicked, the advanced print settings UI displays the advanced print settings dialog on the basis of PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities, which are generated on the basis of a function text file of the designated printing device from among file groups 313 and 314 for accepting staple or tint block, etc., settings which are stored in an application storage area 355, paragraphs 68-79);
and in response to determining that the selected printing device is the printer setting, perform, in the second display process, generating second display data for displaying, on the general-purpose print setting screen, contents of setting items in print settings based on the common capabilities, and passing the generated second display data to the general-purpose print program, thereby causing the general-purpose print setting screen according to the second display data to be displayed as the second print setting screen on the display via the general-purpose print program (OS 210 receiving a print settings display event generated as a result of a user executing a print command in an application provided with a print output function, wherein, when button 705 is not clicked, the OS 210 displays a simple print settings dialog 700, fig. 7a, which allows currently used printing device settings to be selected via the simple print settings dialog 700 such as common capabilities of printing devices which include paper size settings, copy number settings, etc., paragraph 68).
Tokuda fails to explicitly disclose in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the virtual printer, perform, in the first display process, generating first display data, thereby causing the print setting screen according to the first display data to be displayed as the first print setting screen on the display; and in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, perform, in the second display process, generating second display data for displaying, contents of setting items in print settings based on the common capabilities, thereby causing the print setting screen according to the second display data to be displayed as the second print setting screen on the display.
However, Takeo teaches in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the virtual printer, perform, in the first display process, generating first display data, thereby causing the print setting screen according to the first display data to be displayed as the first print setting screen on the display; and in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, perform, in the second display process, generating second display data for displaying, contents of setting items in print settings based on the common capabilities, thereby causing the print setting screen according to the second display data to be displayed as the second print setting screen on the display (print settings screens 1110 and 1120 are displayed for the case in which printing devices 110a and 110b are already registered under the virtual printer 120, and when Printer (1) is selected by a user on the printer selection section 1102, printer functions provided to the information processing apparatus 130 by the virtual printer 120 are displayed in an abstracted state such that when AND (logical product) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as not the virtual printer based on shared capabilities), there is displayed a first screen for setting functions which can be set to all of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120. On the other hand, as displayed on the UI screen 1120, in a case where OR (logical sum of the OR capabilities) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as the virtual printer based on shared OR capabilities), there is displayed a second screen for setting functions which can be set to at least just one of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120 such as accepting setting functions based on common capabilities (i.e., stapling, punching, etc.) of printing devices connectable with the cloud server operating as virtual printer, paragraphs 213-218).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 4, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches in response to receiving the processing request from the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, print control program for realizing each module, component, and application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and executing the program by the CPU 201 such that client computer with CPU 201 includes common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program) in advance, paragraph 67, 24-33) when a display instruction to display a detailed setting screen has been received via the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program), wherein, UI 352 with print extension application 350 is executed in response to reception of a user operation for starting the print extension application 350 (such as advanced settings event issued by the OS), status display of the registered printing device is executed, such as displaying UI for print settings on the basis of acquired PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities, paragraph 48, and OS 210 receives a print setting display event when the user executes a print command on an application having a print output function and it is determined whether to display the simple print setting dialog 700 as shown in fig. 7a, paragraph 68),
determine whether the selected printing device is the virtual printer based on the obtained specific information (Takeo, when a print job request is received from the information processing apparatus, the printer performs a printing process, wherein, print data is transmitted from an information processing apparatus not directly to a printer, but to a cloud server which serves as one virtual printer associated with a plurality of printers to make use of a logical sum or a logical product of the capabilities of the plurality of printers and it is determined whether a cloud server is used as a virtual printer having printing capabilities defined by a logical sum of the capabilities of the printers for checking, based on the logical sum of the capabilities, whether or not printing with print settings is inexecutable by the capabilities of a plurality of printers, paragraphs 5-7, 51);
in response to determining that the selected printing device is not the virtual printer, perform the first display process to display, as the first print setting screen, the detailed setting screen configured to accept print settings based on the obtained capability information; and in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, perform the second display process to display, as the second print setting screen, the detailed setting screen configured to accept print settings based on the common capabilities (Takeo, print settings screens 1110 and 1120 are displayed for the case in which printing devices 110a and 110b are already registered under the virtual printer 120, and when Printer (1) is selected by a user on the printer selection section 1102, printer functions provided to the information processing apparatus 130 by the virtual printer 120 are displayed in an abstracted state such that when AND (logical product) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as not the virtual printer based on shared capabilities), there is displayed a first screen for setting functions which can be set to all of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120. On the other hand, as displayed on the UI screen 1120, in a case where OR (logical sum of the OR capabilities) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as the virtual printer based on shared OR capabilities), there is displayed a second screen for setting functions which can be set to at least just one of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120 such as accepting setting functions based on common capabilities (i.e., stapling, punching, etc.) of printing devices connectable with the cloud server operating as virtual printer, paragraphs 213-218).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 5, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches when the detailed setting screen is being displayed to accept print settings based on the obtained capability information through the first display process (Tokuda, detailed print setting dialog 720 of the print extension application 350 as shown in fig. 7b, detailed print setting UI based on obtained specific PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities is acquired and displayed, paragraphs 68-72 and Takeo, when AND (logical product) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as not the virtual printer based on shared capabilities), there is displayed a first screen for setting functions which can be set to all of the printers registered in the virtual printer 120, paragraphs 213-218), restrict (prohibit) acceptance of unconfigurable print settings based on the capability information (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 provides the OS 210 with a device function text file group 313 and a script file group 314 in which a prohibition rule indicating a combination of mutually conflicting print settings and device functions, paragraphs 31 and Takeo, virtual printer capabilities generation section 3216 generates the capabilities information of the virtual printer by combining not only the respective capabilities information sets of the printers 110a, 110b, and 110c, but also the prohibited settings information generated by the virtual printer prohibited settings, for example, in fig. 12, when the double-sided print setting is set either to long-side binding or to short-side binding, the double-sided print setting is a prohibited setting conflicting with the color setting of color. Therefore, in a case where ON is selected for the double-sided-print setting item 1124 on the UI screen 1120, the color setting item 1122 is displayed in a state in which the monochrome printing (Mono) is selected and the color printing (Color) is grayed-out, and the setting is prevented from being changed paragraphs 91-92, 128, 219, 221-222); and when the detailed setting screen is being displayed to accept print settings based on the common capabilities through the second display process, not restrict acceptance of print settings via the detailed setting screen (Takeo, as shown in FIG. 11B, a mark “*” is added to a setting which is related to the prohibited settings information and can undesirably constrain other print settings. This makes it possible to notify, in a case where a setting with the mark “*” is selected, a user that there can be a constraint but still can accept print settings based on the common capabilities on a subsequent operation for selecting other selection items on the option setting section 1105, paragraph 220).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 6, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches wherein the common capabilities include extended capabilities that are not supported by the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program, wherein, OS 210 sets up the common printer driver 211 so that printing can be performed using the target printer with print port settings and printer capability settings based on IPP-compliant print attribute information acquired from the target printer, wherein, control for expanding the common printer driver 211 with the print expansion application such that common printer driver is associated with an extended application program for performing vendor-specific print settings, paragraphs 35, 55).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 7, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, perform the second display process comprising: reading extended data and setting data, the extended data being data in which print settings based on the extended capabilities are written, the setting data being data in which respective setting values for individual print setting items are written; and displaying, on the display, the second print setting screen configured to accept print settings based on the read extended data, the setting values written in the read setting data being configured as initial values on the second print setting screen (Takeo, print settings screens 1110 and 1120 are displayed for the case in which printing devices 110a and 110b are already registered under the virtual printer 120, and when Printer (1) is selected by a user on the printer selection section 1102, printer functions provided to the information processing apparatus 130 by the virtual printer 120 are displayed in an abstracted state such that when OR (logical sum of the OR capabilities) is selected (i.e., selected printer (1) is determined as the virtual printer based on shared OR capabilities), there is displayed a second screen for reading extended data comprising extended capability functions (i.e., stapling, punching, etc.) and setting data (i.e., paper size, color, copies, etc., ) of printing devices is written and set as initial/set values based on information supplied by the user, paragraphs 213-218).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 10, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches in response to receiving a request for processing from the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program and in response to reception of a user operation for starting the print extension application 350, status display of the registered printing device is executed, paragraph 48) when a print instruction to cause the virtual printer to print a target image has been output from an application program incorporated in the information processing device to the general-purpose print program, obtain image data representing the target image from the general-purpose print program, and send a print job with the obtained image data to the virtual printer (Takeo, print data with printer settings is transmitted from an information processing apparatus such as print screen controller 3311 displays the print settings screen with settings which are configured by user to a cloud server which serves as one virtual printer associated with a plurality of printers to perform printing and print data which is once transmitted to the virtual printer 120 via is stored in the virtual printer and later on, a request is sent from the printer to the cloud server, for pulling the print data stored in the cloud server, and then the print data is printed by the printer, paragraphs 5-6, 53, 117).
Tokuda and Takeo are combinable because they both are in the same field of endeavor dealing with information processing apparatus facilitating control of plurality of connected printing devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Tokuda to incorporate the teachings of Takeo to explicitly provide a virtual printer which is selectable when selecting a printer for the benefit of providing a mechanism for advancing the timing of notifying a user that the desired print settings are print settings with which printing is inexecutable when using a plurality of printers as one virtual printer as taught by Takeo in paragraph 8.
Regarding claim 11, Combination of Tokuda with Takeo further teaches a printing system comprising: a server on a network, the server having a virtual printer; a printing device connected with the server; and an information processing device configured to connect with the virtual printer provided on the server on the network (Takeo, printers 110a, 110b, and 110c, and the information processing apparatuses 130 are capable of communicating with the virtual printer 120 implemented by a cloud server which provides cloud services via the Internet 103, paragraphs 47-48), the information processing device comprising:
a computer; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions (Tokuda, “present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of each of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more computers in the system or apparatus. It can also be realized by a process in which the processor reads and executes the program”, paragraph 117) supporting a general-purpose print program incorporated in advance in an operating system of the information processing device (Tokuda, print control program for realizing each module, component, and application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and executing the program by the CPU 201 such that client computer with CPU 201 includes common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program) in advance, paragraph 67, 24-33), the computer-readable instructions being configured to, when executed by the computer, cause the information processing device to (Tokuda, “each operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is realized by the OS 210 reading a program for realizing each module, component, or application stored in the external memory 209 into the RAM 202 and causing the CPU 201 to execute the program”, paragraph 51),
in response to receiving a request for processing from the general-purpose print program (Tokuda, common printer driver 211 built into an OS 210 (i.e., general-purpose print program and in response to reception of a user operation for starting the print extension application 350, status display of the registered printing device is executed, paragraph 48) when a print instruction to cause the virtual printer to print a target image has been output from an application program incorporated in the information processing device to the general-purpose print program, obtain image data representing the target image from the general-purpose print program, and send a print job with the obtained image data to the virtual printer (Takeo, print data with printer settings is transmitted from an information processing apparatus such as print screen controller 3311 displays the print settings screen with settings which are configured by user to a cloud server which serves as one virtual printer associated with a plurality of printers to perform printing, paragraphs 5-6, 53, 117), wherein the server is configured to receive and store the print job sent to the virtual printer (Takeo, print data is once transmitted to the virtual printer 120 via the Internet 103, and stored in the virtual printer 120, paragraph 53),
wherein the printing device is configured to send a transmission request to the server to send the print job stored in the server, to receive the print job sent by the server in response to the transmission request, and to perform printing based on the received print job (Takeo, a request is sent from the printer to the cloud server, for pulling the print data stored in the cloud server, and then the print data is printed by the printer, paragraphs 5, 53). Rest of the claim recites similar features as claim 1 and thus is rejected on the same rationale.
Regarding claim 12, is a method version of claim 1 reciting similar features and thus is rejected on the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: cited and other related prior arts fails to explicitly teach “the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the instructions are further configured to, when executed by the computer, cause the information processing device to: display, on the display, an initial value setting screen configured to accept input of the setting values to be written into the setting data; store, in a memory of the information processing device, the setting data in which the setting values accepted via the initial value setting screen are written; and in response to determining that the selected printing device is the virtual printer, perform the second display process comprising: reading the extended data, and the setting data stored in the memory; and displaying, on the display, the second print setting screen configured to accept the print settings based on the read extended data, the setting values written in the read setting data being configured as the initial values on the second print setting screen” as currently recited in claim 8.
Claim 9 is further dependent upon claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Morita, US 2021/0165620
Kai, US 2020/0310701
Takahashi, US 2011/0261396
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/PAWAN DHINGRA/Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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