Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/809,626

IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING DRIVER PROGRAM, AND PRINTING METHOD

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Aug 20, 2024
Priority
Sep 01, 2023 — JP 2023-142580
Examiner
VO, QUANG N
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Sharp Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
72%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 2m
Est. Remaining
78%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 72% — above average
72%
Career Allowance Rate
450 granted / 625 resolved
+12.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +6% lift
Without
With
+6.4%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 0m
Avg Prosecution
26 currently pending
Career history
646
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.3%
-38.7% vs TC avg
§103
82.5%
+42.5% vs TC avg
§102
12.6%
-27.4% vs TC avg
§112
1.0%
-39.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 625 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
CTNF 18/809,626 CTNF 82124 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/20/2024 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Applicant has not provided an explanation of relevance of cited document(s) discussed below. Reference US 2007/0012769 A1 is a general background reference covering: A printing apparatus comprises an electronic document acquisition part that acquires an electronic document of a print target, a code information generation part that generates code information for uniquely identifying a medium on which a document image of the electronic document is printed, a code image generation part that generates a code image for printing from the code information generated by the code information generation part, a document image generation part that generates the document image from the electronic document, a printing part that prints the generated code image and the document image on the medium, and a management part that associates at least one of information obtained in a case of acquiring the electronic document and information obtained in a case of printing the electronic document with the code information and managing the information. (see abstract). Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim s 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a1 ) as being anticipated by Ishii (US 2014/0071484 A1) . Regarding claim 1, Ishii discloses an image forming apparatus (e.g., image forming apparatus 10, figure 2), comprising: one or more controllers (e.g., CPU 101, figure 2); and an image former (e.g., image outputting unit 105, figure 2, paragraph 58), wherein when information for giving additional information to image information is included in print job data transmitted from an information processing device, the one or more controllers generate the additional information (e.g., A program substantializing functions of the image forming apparatus 10 is recorded (installed) in the auxiliary memory device 103 which is not volatile such as a hard disk drive (HDD). The auxiliary memory device 103 stores necessary files, data and so on in addition to the installed program, paragraph 56), and when the image information is image information related to a document that certifies authenticity of contents and a setting of the image forming device satisfies a provision condition for giving the additional information, the one or more controllers control the image former to give the additional information to the image information and form an image (e.g., The image reading unit 106 reads the image data from the original. The image outputting unit 105 outputs (prints) the image data, paragraphs 58, 59, figure 2 with different controllers). Regarding claim 2, Ishii discloses wherein when the image information is image information related to a document that certifies authenticity of the contents, the one or more controllers generate the additional information including organization information regarding an organization to which a user who executes a job regarding image formation of the document belongs (e.g., Within the first embodiment, the cards 500 are previously distributed to the corresponding users. Depending on a security level necessary for an operation of the image forming apparatus 10, a plurality of users may commonly share one card 500. The type of the card 500 distributed to the user may not be limited to one type. As described above, the card reader 110 can be easily connected with the image forming apparatus 10 by a USB or the like. Therefore, a plurality of card readers 110 for different types of the card may be simultaneously connected with the image forming apparatus 10. In this case, cards 500 of a plurality of types are simultaneously used, paragraph 60). Regarding claim 3, Ishii discloses wherein even when the image information is image information related to a document that certifies authenticity of the contents and information for giving the additional information is included in the print job data, the one or more controllers notify the information processing device of an error when a setting of the image forming apparatus does not satisfy the provision condition (e.g., In response to the request, the certification server 30 verifies authenticity of the received user certificate and confirms whether the user certificate corresponds to the user in step S120. A method of verifying the user certificate is similar to an ordinary method of verifying authenticity of public key certificates. The certification server 30 takes out the user name from the received user certificate to know whether the user certificate corresponds to the user. The certification server 30 acquires the user certificate stored in association with the user name in the certification server 30. If the acquired user certificate matches the received user certificate, it is confirmed that the received user certificate corresponds to the user, paragraph 80). Regarding claim 4, Ishii discloses wherein the provision condition is a condition in which a user authentication function is enabled (e.g., Subsequently, the certification server 30 decrypts the encrypted data of the certification item using the public key recorded in the user certificate and checks the authenticity of a transmission source of the user certificate in step S12, paragraph 81). Regarding claim 5, Ishii discloses further comprising: a permitter that receives input of a response content with respect to a permission request from the information processing device, wherein the one or more controllers control the image former to form the image when input of a response content indicating that the permission request is accepted is received via the permitter from an administrator having administrative privileges over the image forming apparatus (e.g., The session key A is encrypted by a public key recorded in the user certificate in step S122. Further, the TGT is encrypted by the certification server key. The TGT is a terminology of Kerberos being an example of proof data indicative of certification of the user. For example, the TGT is used to accept an issuance of a service ticket for each service. Further, the session key A is used as an encryption key or the like for securing security of communications between the image forming apparatus 10 and the certification server 30, paragraph 82). Regarding claim 6, Ishii discloses wherein the one or more controllers generate the additional information as encoded information, and control the image former to perform the image formation by giving a code based on the encoded information to an image based on the image information (e.g., FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary structure of functions of the image forming apparatus 10 of the first embodiment. Referring to FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 10 includes a delivery data inputting unit 11, a card access unit 12, a certification control unit 13, a PKI certification control unit 14, and so on. These units are substantialized when one or more programs installed in the image forming apparatus 10 are executed by the CPU 101, paragraph 62). Regarding claim 7, Ishii discloses wherein when the image information is image information related to a document that certifies authenticity of the contents, the one or more controllers generate the encoded information including login information with respect to the image forming apparatus (e.g., Subsequently, when an original is set in the image forming apparatus 10 and an instruction of performing scanning is input by the user through the operation screen in step S231 of FIG. 12, the delivery data inputting unit 11 causes the image reading unit 106 to read out image data from the set original in step S232. Subsequently, the delivery data inputting unit 11 sends the user name and the password to the delivery server 20 in step S233. Each of the user name and the password are encrypted by a common key which has been previously exchanged between the delivery server 20 and the image forming apparatus 10 and sent, paragraph 146) or a character string including data and time information of printing as a content in addition to the organization information, and cause the character string represented by decoding the code to be connected without a delimiter (e.g., The delivery data inputting unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 10 can acquire the session key B of a plain text by decoding the encrypted data of the received session key B using the session key A, paragraph 107). Regarding claim 8, Ishii discloses wherein when an image forming position of the code overlaps with an image forming position of an image different from the code, the one or more controllers control the image former to perform the image formation while prioritizing the code (e.g., The card access unit 12 requests the card 500 to perform the PIN (which is a code) verification for the card 500 corresponding to the card object through the card reader 110 in step S108. As a result, the PIN is inputted in the card 500. The card 500 checks off the PIN stored inside the card 500 with the input PIN. If the stored PIN matches the input PIN, locked information (information protection) in the card 500 is released. By releasing the locked information, information inside the card 500 becomes accessible. The card access unit 12 reports a result of the PIN verification (for example, whether the PIN verification is successful) to the delivery data inputting unit 11 in step S109. The report includes the card object corresponding to a state where the locked information is released, paragraph 75). Regarding claim 9, Ishii discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a driver program for causing a computer (e.g., The image forming apparatus 10 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, an auxiliary memory device 103, a network I/F 104, an image outputting unit 105, an image reading unit 106, an external device I/F 107, a displaying unit 108, and an operating unit 109, or the like, paragraph 55) to enable a function to display an input screen for receiving input of a print setting related to a print job (e.g., The displaying unit 108 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like. The displaying unit 108 displays an operation screen, a message, or the like. The operating unit 109 is formed by a button or a key (hardware) for receiving operation inputs input by the user. The displaying unit 108 and the operating unit 109 may be integrally formed as an operation panel, paragraph 57), and a function to output print job data including information related to giving additional information to image information received from a user via the input screen and the image information (e.g., The image reading unit 106 reads the image data from the original. The image outputting unit 105 outputs (prints) the image data, paragraph 58). Regarding claim 10, Ishii discloses wherein the input screen includes a selection screen for receiving a selection of a type of the additional information by the user (e.g., When the delivery data inputting unit 11 determines that the PIN is required to be input, the delivery data inputting unit 11 causes a screen for inputting the PIN on the displaying unit 108 in step S105, paragraph 73). Regarding claim 11, Ishii discloses wherein as a type of the additional information for receiving a selection by the user, the selection screen displays any of additional information regarding image information of a document that certifies authenticity of contents (e.g., Subsequently, the user inputs the PIN through the screen in step S106. Then, the delivery data inputting unit 11 designates the PIN along with the card object and requests the card access unit 12 to perform PIN verification in step S107, paragraph 74), additional information regarding image information of a document different from the document that certifies authenticity of the contents, and no additional information in a selectable manner (e.g., The delivery condition is information including identification information (identification information of the folder server 50 and of the folder) of the delivery destination, or the like. The delivery condition may be input by a user at a time of reading the image data or included in user attribute information. Subsequently, the delivery data inputting unit 11 enables operating an operation screen in step S157. Said differently, it is enabled to receive an instruction of performing next scanning, paragraph 123). Regarding claim 12, Ishii discloses wherein when the additional information regarding the image information of the document that certifies the authenticity of the contents is selected as a type of the additional information, the input screen receives input of the additional information (e.g., The card access unit 12 requests the card 500 to perform the PIN verification for the card 500 corresponding to the card object through the card reader 110 in step S108. As a result, the PIN is inputted in the card 500. The card 500 checks off the PIN stored inside the card 500 with the input PIN. If the stored PIN matches the input PIN, locked information (information protection) in the card 500 is released. By releasing the locked information, information inside the card 500 becomes accessible. The card access unit 12 reports a result of the PIN verification (for example, whether the PIN verification is successful) to the delivery data inputting unit 11 in step S109. The report includes the card object corresponding to a state where the locked information is released, paragraph 75). Regarding claim 13, Ishii discloses wherein the input screen displays an input confirmation button in a non-selectable state until input of the additional information is completed (e.g., When the delivery data inputting unit 11 determines that the PIN is required to be input, the delivery data inputting unit 11 causes a screen for inputting the PIN on the displaying unit 108 in step S105, paragraph 73). Regarding claim 14, claim 14 is a printing method claim with limitations similar of limitations of claim 1. Therefore, claim 14 is rejected as set forth above as claim 1. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N VO whose telephone number is (571)270-1121. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7AM-4PM, EST. 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, Abderrahim Merouan can be reached at 571-270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /QUANG N VO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 2 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 3 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 4 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 5 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 6 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 7 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 8 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 9 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 10 Art Unit: 2683 Application/Control Number: 18/809,626 Page 11 Art Unit: 2683
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 20, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12682490
INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, METHOD AND MEDIUM
2y 7m to grant Granted Jul 14, 2026
Patent 12671782
Back-End Scaling Circuit With Local Tone Mapping After Image Warping
3y 4m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12671776
INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM, NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM, AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION
3y 3m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12671798
INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD
3y 2m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12670612
GAZE TRACKING METHOD, APPARATUS, DEVICE, AND MEDIUM
2y 6m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
72%
Grant Probability
78%
With Interview (+6.4%)
3y 0m (~1y 2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 625 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month