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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kobayashi (US 2019/0171137).
With regard to claim 1, Kobayashi discloses an image forming apparatus (5) [Para. 0050; Fig. 1] comprising:
a conveyance device to convey a recording medium (M) having a first side [Fig. 14] and a second side [Fig. 16];
a printing device (300) [print engine; Para. 0054; Fig. 1] to form an image on the conveyed recording medium [Para. 0055];
an image reading device (401) [Para. 0090] to read a print position based on the formed image, the print position being a position of the formed image [Para. 0019; Fig. 10]; and
circuitry (1000) [controller; Fig. 1] configured to:
detect an amount of change in the print position that is read relative to a target print position [position detecting device (400) scans position marks and calculates correction value; Para. 0057]; and
correct an image position based on the detected amount of change, the image position being a position of an image to be formed on the recording medium in subsequent image formations [Para. 0095],
wherein the circuitry determines the image position on the second side of the recording medium based on deviations of the print position on the first side of the recording medium from the target print position [Para.0096],
the deviations including a deviation at a time of printing the first side, and a post-printing deviation after printing and being the detected amount of change [Para. 0059].
With regard to claim 2, wherein the circuitry determines the image position on the second side according to the post-printing deviation after correcting the image position in a direction to compensate the deviation at the time of printing [circuitry calculates the correction value, to adjust a position of an image to be formed on a second face of the recording medium based on the first scanned image; Para. 0006].
With regard to claim 3, wherein the deviation at the time of printing includes a positional deviation of a detection mark (7a) closest to an edge of a print origin on the first side, read by the image reading device [Para. 0152-0158].
With regard to claim 9, Kobayashi discloses an image forming method executed by an image forming apparatus (5) [Para. 0050; Fig. 1] including an image reading device an image reading device (401) [Para. 0090], comprising:
detecting, from an image printed on a recording medium (M) having a first side [front face; Para. 0004] and a second side [back face; Para. 0004], an amount of change in the print position that is read relative to a target print position [position detecting device (400) scans position marks and calculates correction value; Para. 0057]; and
determining an image position on the second side of the recording medium based on deviations of the print position on the first side of the recording medium from the target print position [Para.0096],
the deviations including a deviation at a time of printing the first side, and a post-printing deviation after printing and being the detected amount of change [Para. 0059]; and correcting the image position based on the detected amount of change, the image position
being a position of an image to be formed on the recording medium in subsequent image formations [correction values applied on sheets on which image formation is performed after the correction value is calculated is used to the subsequent print sheets; Para. 0209].
With regard to claim 10, Kobayashi discloses a non-transitory recording medium (40) [HDD; Para. 0069] storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:
detecting, from an image printed on a recording medium (M) having a first side [front face; Para. 0004] and a second side [back face; Para. 0004], an amount of change in the print position that is read relative to a target print position [position detecting device (400) scans position marks and calculates correction value; Para. 0057]; and
determining an image position on the second side of the recording medium based on deviations of the print position on the first side of the recording medium from the target print position [Para.0096],
the deviations including a deviation at a time of printing the first side, and a post-printing deviation after printing and being the detected amount of change [Para. 0059]; and correcting the image position based on the detected amount of change, the image position
being a position of an image to be formed on the recording medium in subsequent image formations [correction values applied on sheets on which image formation is performed after the correction value is calculated is used to the subsequent print sheets; Para. 0209].
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.
Claim(s) 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (US 2019/0171137) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Mima (JP 5188586 B2).
With regard to claim 4, Kobayashi image forming apparatus discloses all the limitations of claim 1, and Kobayashi also discloses wherein, in determining the image position on the second side, the circuitry decomposes the deviations into two components including the deviation at the time of printing and the post-printing deviation [Para. 0059], based on results of reading the image by the first image reading device and the second image reading device [Para. 0096].
Kobayashi does not disclose wherein the image reading device includes a first image reading device to read the image immediately after printing and a second image reading device to read the image after printing when the recording medium is sufficiently stable, and wherein, in determining the image position on the second side, the circuitry decomposes the deviations into two components including the deviation at the time of printing and the post-printing deviation, based on results of reading the image by the first image reading device and the second image reading device.
However, Mima teaches an image reading device (105 and 106) [MFPs; Para. 0044] includes a first image reading device to read the image immediately after printing [first measuring device that measures a shift amount of a printing position of an image printed on a first surface after printing; Claim 1] and a second image reading device to read the image after printing when the recording medium is sufficiently stable [a second measuring unit that measures a shift amount of a printing position of an image printed on the second surface after printing on second surface; Claim 1]
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize a reading device including a first image reading device and a second image reading device for the purpose of reading the displacement of the printed image on different surfaces at different times.
Claim(s) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (US 2019/0171137) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Nishii (US 2021/0387823).
With regard to claim 5, Kobayashi’s image forming apparatus discloses all the limitations of claim 3 and Kobayashi also discloses correcting a detection deviation in detecting the amount of change based on the image having the image position corrected [Para. 0057]; and determining the image position on the second side based on a reading result of the printing position on the first side for which correction are applied to the image position [Para. 0058] but does not disclose corrections are applied to a position of the recording medium.
However, Nishi teaches corrections applied to a position of the recording medium [in a case where the sheets are skewed before an image is formed, alignment of sheet is corrected based on the measured skew amount; Para. 0081, 0161; Fig. 8].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to correct a position of the recording medium when determining the image position on the second side based on reading result of the print position on the first side determine the image position on the second side based on reading result of the print position on the first side for which correction is applied to a position of the recording medium for the purpose of ensuring data or images are aligned correctly on the paper.
Claim(s) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (US 2019/0171137) in view of Nishii (US 2021/0387823) as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Mima (US 2006/0159480).
With regard to claim 6, Kobayashi’s modified image forming apparatus discloses all the limitations of claim 5, but does not disclose wherein the circuitry corrects a detection result of the amount of change based on an input result of a correction amount input from an extraneous source.
However, Mima teaches circuitry (205) correcting a detection result of the amount of change based on an input result of a correction amount input from an extraneous source (209) [misalignment amount detected by the sensor unit and converting data from the user in the HDD; Para. 0443].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize correcting a detection result of the amount of change based on input result of correction amount input from an extraneous source for the purpose of automatically executing correction without accepting an explicit correction instruction from the operator.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 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.
The primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter of claim 7 is the inclusion of the limitations of wherein the circuitry corrects the reading result of the position of the recording medium by an amount equal to a correction amount of the positional deviation of the detection mark with respect to an adjacent sheet edge. It is this limitation(s) found in the claims, as it is claimed in the combination of that has not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes these claims allowable over the prior art.
The primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter of claim 8 is the inclusion of the limitations of wherein the circuitry corrects the reading result of the position of the recording medium by an amount obtained by multiplying a correction amount of the positional deviation of the detection mark with respect to an adjacent sheet edge by a ratio of a distance from a reading origin to the detection mark to a distance from the reading origin to a sheet edge. It is this limitation(s) found in the claims, as it is claimed in the combination of that has not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes these claims allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACEY M MCMILLION whose telephone number is (571)270-5193. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6AM-2:30PM EST.
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/TRACEY M MCMILLION/ Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/RICARDO I MAGALLANES/ Supervisor Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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