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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-3, 6, and 13-14 (Group I) in the reply filed on 02 September 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 4-5 and 7-12 (Groups II-VI) are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) / 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Narushima (US 6633410 B1).
Referring to claim 1:
Narushima discloses a printing apparatus (Figs. 5, 10, 14-15) comprising:
a display device (45a);
a controller (image processing section 6); and
a memory configured to store computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the controller (col. 17, line 37-50 and col. 29, line 38 to col. 30, line 32), perform processes including:
a first acquisition operation of acquiring first image data for printing a first image on a printing medium (Fig. 14, col. 32, lines 51-67: operation of image input mean 7 and image data input circuit 31) using an ink ejected from a nozzle (col. 26, lines 38-48: ink jet printing head 25);
a first color conversion operation of performing color conversion on the first image data to generate second image data (Figs. 15, col. 33, line 1 to col. 34, line 12: operation of data processing section 5);
a second color conversion operation of performing, according to a display condition when displaying the first image on the display device, color conversion on the second image data to generate third image data (Fig. 14, col. 34, line 24-37: operation of display devices processing section 22); and
a display operation of displaying a second image on the display device (45a) based on the third image data (Fig. 14 - operation of display device output circuit 45b), and
wherein in the first color conversion operation, the color conversion is performed according to any one of a printing medium, a printing condition, and a combination of the printing medium and the printing condition (col. 33, line 1 to col. 34, line 12).
Referring to claim 13:
This claim is the method for performing the corresponding functions of the apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the same reasons as presented above.
Referring to claim 14:
This claim is the product or article of manufacture (i.e., a non-transitory computer readable storage medium) storing a computer program that causes a computer of a printing apparatus including a display device, to performs the corresponding operations of the apparatus as set forth in claim 1. Narushima discloses such a product for this purpose (col. 17, line 37-50 and col. 29, line 38 to col. 30, line 32). Therefore, this claim is rejected for the same reasons as presented above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 and 6 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. Referring to these claims, the prior art searched and of record neither anticipates nor suggests the limitations added in the claimed combinations.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed (i.e., a descriptive title that distinguishes the invention and is not a generic or general description). The new title should take into account any amendments to the claims to best indicate the claimed invention.
The title must be as short and specific as possible (see 37 CFR 1.72(a)), distilling a description of the claimed invention into as few words as possible to capture the essence of the claimed invention. Rather than reciting statutory categories (apparatus, method, product) and some generic descriptor (e.g., information processing), a title that is specific, but characterizes the essence or key aspect(s) of the claimed invention, should be submitted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on 9/27/24, 10/15/24, and 12/10/24 were filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the statements have been considered by the examiner.
The relevance of the cited documents cited in the statement filed 9/27/24, in addition to any applied above, can be found in the International Search Report and Written Opinion from the ISA dated 5/30/23 for PCT/JP2023/010591 (both of record).
Applicant has not provided an explanation of relevance of cited document(s) summarized below.
Shiraiwa (US 20020168103 A1) discloses providing a satisfactory simulation image regardless of an output object observation environment and a display object observation environment. The image processing method for simulating an image output from an image output device in advance includes the steps of: performing a color correction process in accordance with an output object observation environment when an image output from the image output device is observed; and performing a color correction process on image data on which the color correction has been performed in accordance with an output object observation environment and a display object environment when a simulation image is observed.
Cited Art
The prior art and other references made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yamazaki et al (US 6765586 B2) discloses a color gamut shift executed for gamut mapping in which the shape of the color gamut of the first image processing device expands so as to be close to the shape of the color gamut of the second image processing device in a homogenous hue range. Moreover, color gamut expansion is executed for gamut mapping in which a certain region of the resulting gamut after the color gamut shift further expands into the color gamut of the second image processing device. Based on the thus defined relationship, color transformation is executed. Printer 40 prints the image B using the color after the color conversion, so that the saturation of the image B is higher than that of the displayed image A in the mid-low brightness region of the sky or the sea from green to blue.
Yamazoe (US 7961366 B2) discloses an image processing method that achieves gamut mapping between devices having different color reproduction ranges in gamut compression, and enables good color reproduction without reversal of tonal change. An image processing method converts a color signal representing a color in a first color gamut to a color signal representing a color in a color gamut of an image forming apparatus. The image processing method includes modifying a shape of the color gamut of the image forming apparatus according to a shape of the first color gamut, and converting a color signal representing a color in the first color gamut to a color signal representing a color in the color gamut of the image forming apparatus.
Kanzaki (US 11977792 B2), filed by Applicant, disclose a printing apparatus having a head having first nozzles for inks in basic colors and second nozzles for an ink in a custom color, first flow paths for supplying the inks to the first nozzles, a second flow path for supplying the ink to the second nozzles, a display, and a controller, is provided. The controller is configured to acquire an imaging color gamut in a predetermined color space including color values included in image data, for each of a plurality of option colors, one of which is selectable as the custom color, acquire a printing color gamut, acquire an evaluation value for each of the option colors based on a comparison between the printing color gamut and the imaging color gamut, and before loading the second flow path with the ink in the custom color, display a ranked order of the option colors based on the evaluation values. Color values in the image data are converted into another color value in the printing color gamut for the option color, and the image is displayed based on the converted another color value in the display.
Seko (US 20050280848 A1) disclose the gamut G1 of the monitor (the first image equipment) is mapped for making the lightness at the maximum color saturation point P11 in the monitor gamut G1 agree with the lightness at the maximum color saturation point P13 in the printer (second image equipment) gamut G3 in the same hue, then said post-mapping gamut G2 is mapped in the printer gamut G3 to specify the correspondence relationship between the color gamut of the monitor and that of the printer, and the RGB data (the first image data) are color converted into the amount of ink data (the second image data) according to the correspondence relationship specified thereby.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Scott Rogers whose telephone number is 571-272-7467. The examiner can normally be reached 8 am to 7 pm flex.
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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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/Scott A Rogers/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
17 September 2026
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