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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 10, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamada (US 20200174718 A1) in view of Hosomizo’879 (US 20200249879 A1) and Kai (US 20200310701 A1).
Referring to claim 1:
Yamada (US 20200174718 A1) disclose a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (memory 12) storing computer-readable instructions that are executable by a computer (PC 1) of an information processing device and compatible with a particular printer (par. 15, 19, 20 / fig. 1), the computer-readable instructions realizing a support program 42 supporting a general-purpose print program 41 incorporated in advance in an operating system (OS 21) of the information processing device (par. 21). The support program 42 executes a process on the basis of an instruction from the OS 21 according to an operation of the general-use printing program 41 and is an application corresponding to each model of a printer such as the printer 2 (par. 29). The memory 12 stores, as printer information of each printer connected PC1, a corresponding printing supporting program 42 together with model information and access information on each printer (par. 36). In the PC 1, when an editing application 43 has received, as an input, a print instruction which is an instruction to cause the printer 2 to execute printing using the general-use printing program 41, and in response to the OS 21 receiving a print execution notification (i.e., OS receiving an activation instruction) from the editing application 43 (par. 54), the OS 21 outputs an execution command to the supporting program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, activates the supporting program 42, and starts a process of a pre-process supporting program 421 (par. 58 and 104). The supporting program 42 refers to a storage location where the OS 21 stores information, and acquires the model information and the access information on the printer 2 associated with the supporting program itself (par. 59). When the supporting program 42 has determined that, on the basis of the model information on the printer 2, the model of the printer 2 is a specific model for which usage of a high-performance printer driver 44 is recommended to perform printing, and that the printer driver 44 has not been installed (par. 60 and 64). The supporting program 42 acquires information indicating a storage location where an installer of the printer driver 44 is saved, that is, the program reads information (i.e., access information) indicating the URL of a server 3, accesses the server 3 through the Internet 100 on the basis of the read URL information, and downloads (i.e., acquires) the installer of the printer driver 44 (par. 65-66). The supporting program 42 gives an execution instruction to the installer to start installation of the printer driver 44 (par. 68), and, after the installation is started, the supporting program 42 displays a message recommending that a route of causing the printer 2 to perform printing with use of the printer driver 44 is designated as a default printer (par. 71).
In the editing application 43, the print instruction, which is to cause the printer 2 to execute printing with use of the general-use printing program 41, is an instruction by which the OS 21 activates the supporting program 42 corresponding to the printer 2. Thus, the print instruction corresponds to the "activation instruction of a program corresponding to a selected printer" as claimed. In addition, the server 3 provides the installer of the printer driver 44 for the printer 2, and thus corresponds to a server that "provides a service to be applied to the specific printer" as claimed. The printer driver 44 related to said installation corresponds to the "service information which is information relating to the service" as claimed. Further, the message, which is displayed by the supporting program 42 and which recommends that a route of causing the printer 2 to perform printing with use of the printer driver 44 is designated as a default printer, corresponds to the "information based on the service information" as claimed.
Claim 1 differs from Yamada by reciting that "upon the operating system receiving the activation instruction, when a process has been requested from the general-use printing program", the "support program" performs a process, whereas, although document 1 indicates that the supporting program 42 executes a process on the basis of an instruction from the OS 21 according to an operation of the general-use printing program 41, said document does not indicate that a process is requested from the general-use printing program. However, Hosomizo’879 indicates that when a general-use printing program has received a print instruction to perform printing by using a general-use printing program 41 (par. 35), an OS 21 executes the general-use printing program 41 (par. 37), the general-use printing program 41 outputs an execution command to perform a process to a supporting program 42 corresponding to a printer 2, which is a printer designated by the print instruction, and causes the supporting program 42 to operate (par. 38), and the general-use printing program 41 or the supporting program 42 transmits a print command to the printer 2 (par. 50 / fig. 2). Yamada and Hosomizo’879 are in the same field of art and share the common feature of using a general-use printing program and a supporting program to execute a print instruction with respect to a printer.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied the technique described in Hosomizo’879 to the invention described in Yamada, thereby arriving at the feature in which the OS 21 which has received a print instruction executes the general-use printing program 41, the general-use printing program 41 outputs an execution command to perform a process to the supporting program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, which is a printer designated by the print instruction, and the supporting program 42 executes the process according to the command (i.e., to execute a process "upon the operating system receiving the activation instruction, when a process has been requested from the general-use printing program"). Application of this technique in Yamada would reduce operations performed by the user and provide a highly convenient printing system.
Claim 1 further differs from Yamada by reciting that "in the general-use printing program, a program which requests a process according to the activation instruction is associated with a printer", whereas, although document 1 indicates that the memory 12 of the PC 1 has stored therein (i.e., "associated with") information on a corresponding supporting program 42 (i.e., "support program . . . corresponding to a printer") together with model information and access information (i.e., "connection information indicating a connection destination of the specific printer") on each printer connected to the PC 1, said document does not indicate that these items are associated with the general-use printing program. However, Hosomizo’879 indicates that the supporting program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 which is a printer designated by the print instruction is stored in a memory 12, and the general-use printing program 41 outputs an execution command to perform a process to the supporting program 42, and causes the supporting program 42 to operate (par. 38). In the present application, OS 40 associates printer information and program identification information with each other and stores the same in the memory 12. Further, in a case where printer information on a selected printer is associated with program identification information, when an "application start" button 172 is clicked, the general-use printing program 41 starts a program indicated by the associated program identification information. In this embodiment, the printer information on the printer 2 and the identification information on the supporting program 42 are associated with each other. Thus, the description "in the general-use printing program, a program which requests a process according to the activation instruction is associated with a printer" recited in claim 1 of the present application is understood to mean that information on the association between a printer and a supporting program is stored in a memory to which the OS refers, so that the general-use printing program 41 can perform a process based on said association. Considering the above mentioned aspect, the content described in Hosomizo’879 (par. 38) corresponds to the feature recited in the present application in which "in the general-use printing program, a program which requests a process according to the activation instruction is associated with a printer".
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied the technique described in Hosomizo’879 to the invention described in Yamada, thereby arriving at the feature in which the association between the printer 2 and the supporting program 42 is stored in the memory 12 so that the general-use printing program 41 can perform a process (i.e., a process for outputting an execution command to perform a process to the supporting program 42 corresponding to the printer 2) based on the association between the printer 2 and the supporting program 42 stored in the memory 12 (corresponding to "in the general-use printing program, a program which requests a process according to the activation instruction is associated with a printer" in the present application). Application of this technique in Yamada would reduce operations performed by the user and provide a highly convenient printing system.
Claim 1 finally differs from Yamada by reciting that the support program "acquires the access information from the specific printer by using connection information indicating a connection destination of the specific printer", whereas, although Yamada indicates that the supporting program 42 reads information (i.e., "access information") indicating the URL of the server 3, the URL is not acquired from the printer 2. However, Kai indicates that a server 3 comprises an installer 32 of a vendor application 33 (par, 31 / fig. 1), the vendor application 33 stored in the server 3 is a program to execute various image processing relating to printing on a printer 2 (par. 32), information on the selected printer 2 is requested from a PC 1 (par. 45), the printer 2 acquires information indicating the URL of the installer 32 of the vendor application 33 from the server 3 (par. 31 and 46), and the printer 2 transmits the information to an OS 40 which is the source of the request (par. 50). Yamada and Kai are in the same field of art and share the common feature of acquiring, from a server, an installer of a software application (i.e., the printer driver 44 in Yamada and the vendor application 33 in Kai) for executing printing on a printer.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further applied the technique described in Kai to the invention described in Yamada, thereby arriving at the feature in which, as a process for reading information (i.e., "access information") indicating the URL of the server 3 by the supporting program 42, the supporting program 42 performs a process for requesting information from the printer 2, and acquiring, from the printer 2, information (i.e., "access information") which the printer 2 has acquired from the server 3 and which indicates the URL of the installer of the printer driver 44. In addition, when doing so, in order to request and acquire information from the printer 2, it is obvious to require information (i.e., "connection information indicating a connection destination") which indicates a connection destination of the printer 2 and which is needed for performing communication with the printer 2. Application of this technique in Yamada would promote use of the printer driver 44 and thus enable advantages use of device-specific functions of the printer 2.
Referring to claims 10 and 11:
The same reasoning that applies to claim 1 above applies mutatis mutandis to corresponding device and method claims 10 and 11.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamada, Hosomizo’879 and Kai as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hosomizo‘254 (US 20210216254 A1).
Referring to claim 9:
Yamada 1 indicates that in PC 1, when the editing application 43 (i.e., "application program") has received an instruction to designate image data of a printing target and an instruction to execute printing by the printer 2 via the general-use printing program 41, in response to the OS 21 receiving a print execution notification (i.e., "print instruction outputted from an application program") from the editing application 43 (i.e., "upon ... receiving the print instruction, when a process has been requested from the general-use printing program") (par. 54), the OS 21 outputs an execution command to the supporting program 42 (i.e., "support program") corresponding to the printer 2, activates the supporting program 42, and starts a process (par. 58 and 104); the general-use printing program 41 generates print data from image data on the basis of the print instruction (par. 36), and, after the process, the OS 21 transmits the print data to the printer 2 (par. 86 / fig. 3).
Yamada does not indicate that the "support program causes . . . to acquire image data indicating the image from the general-use printing program, and to execute a transmission process for transmitting a print command to the specific printer on the basis of the image data". However, Hosomizo‘254 indicates that when an editing application 43 has received a print execution instruction to cause the printer 2 to perform printing by using a general-use printing program 41 (par. 41), the general-use printing program 41transmits the image data to the supporting program 42 (par. 43), and the supporting program 42 generates print data from the image data, and transmits the print data to the printer 2 together with a print execution command (par. 53). Yamada and Hosomizo’254 are in the same field of art and share the common feature of using a general-use printing program and a supporting program to perform a print instruction with respect to a printer.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further applied the technique described in Hosomizo’254 to the invention described in Yamada, thereby arriving at the feature in which the supporting program 42 receives image data from the general-use printing program 41 (i.e., "to acquire image data indicating the image from the general-use printing program"), generates print data from the image data, and transmits the print data to the printer 2 together with a print execution command (i.e., "to execute a transmission process for transmitting a print command to the specific printer on the basis of the image data"). Application of this technique in Yamada would reduce operations performed by the user and provide a highly convenient printing system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on 9/30/24, 12/18/24, and 5/7/26 were filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the statement(s) have been considered by the examiner as indicated below.
The relevance of the cited document(s), in addition to any applied above, can be found in the International Search Report and/or Written Opinion from the ISA dated 16 May 2023 and 24 September 2024 for PCT/JP2023/011794 (both of record).
Cited Art
The prior art and other references made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Okuno (US 20220317939 A1) disclose a printer of a printing system is configured to a printing operation with a print engine within a range of the permitted number of sheets. The printer transmits notification information, to a terminal device, in accordance with a status of the printer such as a registration status of a server, the permitted number of sheets for printing, an ink remaining amount or the like in response to a short-range wireless communication between a short-range wireless communication interface and the terminal device.
Narita et al (US 20250028488 A1), filed by Applicant and later published, disclose a general-purpose printing program corresponding to a printer is embedded in an operating system. The general-purpose printing program is configured to manage data for displaying a print settings screen on a display of an information processing device. A support program supports the general-purpose printing program. The support program, when executed by a computer of the information processing device, causes the information processing device to perform, when a request to perform a process is issued from the general-purpose printing program in response to the printer being selected: an acquisition process; a generation process; and a display process. The acquisition process acquires service information related to a service corresponding to the printer. The generation process generates notification data based on the service information. The display process transfers the notification data to the general-purpose printing program to have a notification image based on the notification data be displayed in the print settings screen.
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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/Scott A Rogers/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
11 July 2026
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