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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/16/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Oath/Declaration
The receipt of Oath/Declaration is acknowledged.
Drawings
5. The receipt of Drawings is acknowledged.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
6. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
7. The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
8. This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier.
Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
a dispenser unit in claim 1 (See Applicant’s. Spec. Para. [0010]-[0011], Applicant’s Dwg. Fig. 1, Dispenser Unit 102).
a test unit comprising a test surface for receiving material from the dispenser unit in claim 1 (See Applicant’s. Spec. Para. [0015], Applicant’s Dwg. Fig. 1, Test Unit 120).
an imaging device for imaging the material on the test surface in claim 1 (See Applicant’s. Spec. Para. [0016], Applicant’s Dwg. Fig. 1, Imaging Device 124).
9. Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
10. If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-20 are allowed.
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.
13. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 4:
The prior art(s) searched, cited and/or of record fails to explicitly teach, disclose or suggest the teaching(s) of the manufacturing system of claim 3, further comprising:
controlling the dispenser unit and the reference detector to detect the first location reference and the second location reference at a plurality of different temperatures;
calibrating the position of the reference detector based also on detecting the first location reference and the second location reference at the plurality of different temperatures.
Regarding Claim 5:
The prior art(s) searched, cited and/or of record fails to explicitly teach, disclose or suggest the teaching(s) of the manufacturing system of claim 2, wherein the reference detector is a first reference detector, and further comprising a work piece support to position a work piece for processing by the dispenser unit, wherein the work piece support comprises:
a support member for engaging with the work piece;
a second reference detector, wherein the controller is further configured to:
control the work piece support and the second reference detector to detect the location reference;
calibrate a position of the work piece support based on detecting the location reference.
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 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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Miyazaki (US PG. Pub. 2018/0257101 A1).
Referring to Claim 1, Miyazaki teaches a manufacturing system (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Sect. [0029], Droplet Ejecting System 1), comprising:
a dispenser unit (See Miyazaki, Figs. 1-2, Droplet Ejecting Heads 34) movably coupled to a support (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0075], the workpiece table 20 is reciprocally moved in the Y-axis direction by the Y-axis linear motor 13 and is moved in the X-axis direction (performs a line break) such that patterns are drawn on the entire surface of the reference workpiece Wf. In the present exemplary embodiment, descriptions will be made of a case in which two line breaks are performed in the X-axis direction, that is, the workpiece table 20 moves along three scanning lines extending in the Y-axis direction (main scanning direction). In addition, in the present exemplary embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 7A to 7C, descriptions will be made of a case in which the two droplet ejecting heads 34 are used among the plurality of droplet ejecting heads 34.), the dispenser unit comprising a location sensor and a reference detector (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0053] lines 5-11, the detector 160 detects the position of the workpiece W by detecting the positions of the plurality of reference marks 102. In addition, the first image capturing unit 41 is provided on the X-axis stages 11 on which the droplet ejecting head 34 is mounted, and as a result, the detector 160 detects the position of the workpiece W with respect to the droplet ejecting head 34..);
a test unit (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, the table movement mechanism 21) comprising a test surface (See Miyazaki, Figs. 1 and 7, workpiece Wf (W)) for receiving material from the dispenser unit (See Miyazaki, Figs. 7C and 8C, Sect. [0081] lines 11-15, the table movement mechanism 21 comprises the workpiece table 20 which is moved in the processing area A2, the droplets are ejected from the droplet ejecting head 34 onto the reference workpiece Wf which is moved to the position under the droplet ejecting head 34.) and an imaging device (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Imaging Capturing Unit 40 including first and second image capturing units 41 and 42) for imaging the material on the test surface (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0045]-[0046], the first image capturing unit 41 captures images of the workpiece W placed on the workpiece table 20 at a predetermined cycle and the second image capturing unit 42 captures an image of the workpiece W placed on the workpiece table 20, thereby capturing an image of the droplets landing on the upper surface of the workpiece W.);
a location reference mounted to a stationary component of the manufacturing system (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0031] lines 1-3, A plurality of reference marks 102 are formed, at an end of the workpiece W, in the Y-axis direction at a pitch equal to the pitch of the openings 101.);
a controller (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Control Unit 150) configured to:
control the dispenser unit and the reference detector to detect the location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0051] lines 1-5, the control unit 150 has the detector 160 which detects the positions of the reference marks 102 based on the captured image by processing the captured image acquired by the first image capturing unit 41 (or second image capturing unit 42));
calibrate a position of the dispenser unit based on detecting the location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0063] lines 5-7, the detector 160 calculates any one of the position of the workpiece W, the positional deviation amount of the workpiece W, and the correction table. Further, a signal of a detection result of the detector 160 is output to the corrector 161. Further, the correction table is created by the corrector 161 in the case in which the position of the workpiece W or the positional deviation amount of the workpiece W is output from the detector 160 to the corrector 161.);
control the test unit to image the material on the test surface (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0038] linrs1-4, A workpiece alignment camera captures an image of the workpiece W placed on the workpiece table 20, is provided above the workpiece table 20 in the loading and unloading area A1.);
control the dispenser unit and the reference detector to detect an aspect of the material on the test surface (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0055] lines 8-18, The positional deviation amount of the workpiece W indicates the positional correction amount of the workpiece W, that is, the positional correction amount of the workpiece table 20. Therefore, a horizontal axis of the correction table indicates the position of the Y-axis linear motor 13, a vertical axis of the correction table indicates the positional correction amount of the workpiece table 20, and the correction table indicates how much the position of the workpiece table 20 may be moved with respect to the position of the Y-axis linear motor 13 measured by the Y-axis linear scale 16.);
compare the image of the material captured by the test unit with the aspect of the material detected by the reference detector (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0054] lines 1-13, Based on the detected position of the workpiece W, the detector 160 may further calculate the positional deviation amount of from a target position of the workpiece W. That is, based on the position of the Y-axis linear motor 13 measured by the Y-axis linear scale 16, the target position of the workpiece W is estimated using the method. Further, the positional deviation amount is calculated by comparing the calculated target position of the workpiece W with the position of the workpiece W detected by the detector 160.);
calibrate the test unit based on the comparison (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0054] lines 13-18, Further, the positional deviation amount of the workpiece W includes a position in the Y-axis direction, a pitch in the Y-axis direction, a yaw in the Y-axis direction, a position in the X-axis direction based on the position in the Y-axis direction, and a position in the 0 direction based on the position in the Y-axis direction.).
Referring to Claim 2, Miyazaki teaches the manufacturing system of claim 1 (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Sect. [0029], Droplet Ejecting System 1), wherein the dispenser unit is movable along the support to process a work piece (See Miyazak, Sect. [0033] lines 1-6, The droplet ejecting apparatus 1 has a Y-axis stage 10 extending in the main scanning direction (Y-axis direction) and moving the workpiece W in the main scanning direction, and a pair of X-axis stages 11 and 11 crossing over the Y-axis stage 10 and extending in the sub-scanning direction (X-axis direction).), and further comprising a work piece detector movably coupled to the support (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0057] lines 1-6, the detector 160 detects the position of the workpiece W using the image captured by the first image capturing unit 41, but this process is performed when the workpiece table 20 (Y-axis linear motor 13) is moved from the loading and unloading area A1 to the processing area A2 (forward pass).), wherein the controller is further configured to (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Control Unit 150):
control the work piece detector to detect the location reference and calibrate a position of the work piece detector based on detecting the location reference (See Miyazaki, Fig. 4, Sect. [0051] lines 1-8, the control unit 150 has the detector 160 which detects the positions of the reference marks 102 based on the captured image by processing the captured image acquired by the first image capturing unit 41 (or second image capturing unit 42) and the corrector 161 which corrects the position of the workpiece table 20 (positions of the Y-axis linear motor 13 and the table movement mechanism 21)); and
control the work piece detector to detect a position of a work piece (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0056] lines 1-2, the detector 160 calculates any one of the position of the workpiece W).
Referring to Claim 3, Miyazaki teaches the manufacturing system of claim 1 (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Sect. [0029], Droplet Ejecting System 1), wherein the location reference is a first location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0078] lines 8-10, a correction table, which is created for the first scanning line L1, is referred to as a first reference correction table.), and further comprising a second location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0080] lines 7-9, a correction table, which is created with respect to the second scanning line L2, will be referred to as a second reference correction table.), wherein the controller (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Control Unit 150) is further configured to:
control the dispenser unit and the reference detector to detect the second location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0080], a correction table is created by the corrector 161 or the detector 160. Further, in step T3, the detector 160 detects the position of the workpiece W using the image captured by the second image capturing unit 42 while the workpiece table 20 is moved from the standby area A3 to the processing area A2. Hereinafter, a correction table, which is created with respect to the second scanning line L2, will be referred to as a second reference correction table.); and
calibrate the position of the reference detector based also on detecting the second location reference (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0093] lines 11-14, the position of the workpiece table 20 is corrected using the second reference correction table, and the droplet ejecting timing of the droplet ejecting head 34 is controlled.).
Referring to Claim 6, Miazaki teaches the manufacturing system of claim 1 (See Miyazaki, Fig. 1, Sect. [0029], Droplet Ejecting System 1), wherein the reference detector is a high magnification camera (See Miyazaki, Sect. [0058] lines 1-3, the detector 160 detects the position of the workpiece W based on the captured image acquired by the first image capturing unit 41 which is the CCD camera).
Cited Art
17. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Milini et al. (US PG. PUB. No. 2019/0275808 A1) discloses a plant (1) for printing a fibrous material (T). The printing plant (1) comprises: a station (14) for supplying a fibrous material configured for supplying the fibrous material along a predetermined operative path, a treating station (10) configured for treating the fibrous material with a treatment composition by applying the composition itself on a first side (T1) of the fibrous material (T); and a printing station (6) configured for ink-printing at least part of a second side (T2) of the fibrous material (T) opposite to the first side (T1). Moreover, the present invention refers to a process of printing a fibrous material.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DARRYL V DOTTIN whose telephone number is (571)270-5471. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Abderrahim Merouan can be reached on 571-270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DARRYL V DOTTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
/DARRYL V DOTTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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