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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/4/24/2024 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 1-11 are pending in this application.
Oath/Declaration
The receipt of Oath/Declaration is acknowledged.
Drawings
6. The receipt of Drawings is acknowledged.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 3-4 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.
8. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 3:
The prior art(s) searched, cited and/or of record fails to explicitly teach, disclose or suggest the teaching(s) of:
“the print Control device according to claim 2,
wherein the roll printing machine, upon reception of a print instruction, which is any one of a third print instruction to collectively print the first color adjustment chart and the second color adjustment chart, the first print instruction, and the second print instruction, produces a printed image of the print instruction on roll paper while rotating a bobbin of the roll paper to unwind a portion thereof including the printed image and preceding and succeeding portions of the printed image.”
Regarding Claim 3:
The prior art(s) searched, cited and/or of record fails to explicitly teach, disclose or suggest the teaching(s) of:
“the print Control device according to claim 2,
wherein the controller instructs the roll printing machine to collectively print the first color adjustment chart and the second color adjustment chart, which in turn causes the roll printing machine to produce a printed image of the first color adjustment chart and the second color adjustment chart on roll paper while rotating a bobbin of the roll paper to unwind a portion thereof including the printed image and preceding and succeeding portions of the printed image.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
12. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
13. Claims 1-2 and 5-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katayama (US PG. Pub. 2012/0081722 A1) in view of Omagari (US PG. Pub. 2011/01916 A1).
Referring to Claim 1, Katayama teaches a print control device (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10) comprising:
a controller that causes a roll printing machine (See Katayama, Fig. 1, The
Printing Machine 18) to print a color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0188] lines 1-4, the image processing apparatus 16, after completion of operations analogous to steps S31 through S37 (see FIG. 6), causes the color chart 36ce of FIG. 14 to be printed by the printing machine 18.) , wherein the controller, upon reception of a first print instruction to print a first color adjustment chart (See Sect. [008] lines 5-10, The printing machine 18 controls the propulsion of inks onto a print medium 34 (rolled non-printed medium 34 in FIG. 1), based on a print control signal received from an external apparatus, e.g., the image processing apparatus 16, so as to print a color image on the print medium 34, thereby producing a print 36, which may include a color chart 36c.), temporarily stores the received first color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0082] lines 1-, The memory 68 stores therein programs and data (e.g., data required for a processing sequence performed by the chart output data generator 70).
Katayama fails to explicitly teach suspends printing.
However, Omagari teaches suspends printing (See Omagari, Sect. [0034]-[0035], a roll paper option, a rear manual paper feed option or the like can be selected. For the roll paper type, by pressing the Browse button, a dialogue (not shown) is displayed, and the file, in which the color value data that is used to create patches is described, is specified thereon. An area 503 is provided for the setting for patch measurement. When the selected paper is a printable paper sheet and the color value data of the input file is valid, an execution confirmation dialogue is displayed on the screen of the PC 21. When Cancel is selected, the flow returns into an execution menu display state and cancels printing).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Katayama to incorporate the teachings of Omagari to suspend printing. Doing so would provides a printing system and an image processing system that can print patches with which high accuracy measurement can be performed in a short time even when a sensor measures the patches while relatively moving over a paper sheet, See Sect. [0010] as recognized by Omagari.
Referring to Claim 2, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 1 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the controller, upon reception of a second print instruction to print a second color adjustment chart different from the first color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0088], The color value acquirer 72 includes a first color value acquirer 118 for acquiring first color values of a color patch 50, which is ultimately selected from the color chart 36c, as first color values (also referred to as "selected color values"), and a second color value acquirer 120 for acquiring color values of a designated color as second color values.), causes the roll printing machine to collectively print the temporarily stored first color adjustment chart and the second color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0089], The color value display data generator 74 generates various data for displaying the respective color values acquired by the color value acquirer 72. As color values that are displayed, there may be included device-independent data and/or device-dependent data (first color values, second color values), etc., depending on the color patches 50, colors of which are reproduced by the printing machine 18.).
Referring to Claim 5, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 1 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the first color adjustment chart is composed of a plurality of color patches whose colors are shifted with respect to a special color (See Katayama, Fig. A, Sect. [0068], The color chart 36c comprises twenty-seven color patches 50, a surrounding region 52 corresponding to a background portion that surrounds each of the color patches 50 respectively, a sequence of row numbers 541 and a sequence of column numbers 54c for identifying layout positions of the color patches 50 along directions of the rows and columns, and print information 56 for identifying printing conditions for the color chart 36c, all of which are printed on the print medium 34.).
Referring to Claim 6, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 5 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the controller causes the roll printing machine to collectively print the temporarily stored first color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0171], Management information (L*, a*, b* values or C, M, Y, K values) of the special color database, which is stored in the image processing apparatus 16 or in an apparatus external to the image processing apparatus 16, e.g., the database DB, may be updated automatically or manually to produce the corrected values referred to above. Colors of the print 36 can be adjusted using the updated special color data.) and an image of a job whose name includes a name of the special color (See Katayama, Sect. [0114], The radio button 152e corresponds to "DESIGNATE WITH SPECIAL COLOR NAME", which represents a process of referring to special color names (selectable by a pull-down menu 168) stored and managed in the memory 68 or the database DB, and acquiring L*, a*, b* values, which correspond to a selected special color name.).
Referring to Claim 7, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 5 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the controller arranges the temporarily stored first color adjustment chart
at an end of a previous job and causes the roll printing machine to print the previous job
(See Katayama, Sect. [014], Based on the color value inside the surrounding region 52 and the addresses and color values of each of the color patches 50, the image data generator 100 generates print data for printing the color chart 36c, and supplies the print data to the RIP 60. If the print data are PDL-format data, then the RIP 60 instructs the rasterizer 90 and the output profile processor 94 to process the print data. Alternatively, if the print data are raster-format data, then the RIP 60 instructs the output profile processor 94 to process the print data.).
Referring to Claim 8, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 5 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the controller incorporates the temporarily stored first color adjustment chart into a job with a printing condition matching a printing condition of the temporarily stored first color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0181] lines 5-8, As shown in FIG. 12C, the size of respective color patches 50c on the color chart 36cc may also be set to match the size of the target mark 46c on the print sample 40.) and causes the roll printing machine to print the job (See Katayama, Sect. [0055], The image processing apparatus 16 functions to convert an electronic manuscript described by PDL into an electronic manuscript represented by raster data in a raster format, e.g., bitmap image data or TIFF data, perform desired image processing, e.g., a color conversion process, an image scaling process, an image arranging process, etc., on the raster data, convert the processed raster data into print control signals that match the printing machine 18, and send print control signals to the printing machine 18.).
Referring to Claim 9, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches the print Control device according to claim 8 (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10),
wherein the printing condition include a paper type (See Katayama, Sect. [0059], The print medium 34 may comprise a paper medium such as synthetic paper, thick paper, aluminum-evaporated paper, or the like, a resin medium comprising vinyl chloride, PET, or the like, or tarpaulin, or the like.), a screen setting (See Katayama, Figs. 8-10, Color Selection Screen Image 200, Sect. [0091] lines 1-10, The input device 26 functions as a sample information input unit 126 for entering various information pertaining to the print sample 40, via a color selection screen image 200 (see FIGS. 8 through 10) also input device 26 functions as a color chart condition input unit 128 for entering color chart conditions, via the color selection screen image 200 etc. and functions as an identification information input unit 130 for entering identification numbers 54 of the color patches 50, via the color selection screen image 200 etc.), presence of a white toner (See Katayama, Sect. [0058] lines 1-5, The printing machine 18 comprises an inkjet printing apparatus for producing a color image based on a combination of standard inks of colors C, M, Y, K (process colors), and optional inks of light colors such as LC, LM, etc., and W (white).), and a continuous printing distance (See Katayama, Fig. 12C, Sect. [0181] lines 8-10, Printing by conforming the observed distance of the color chart 36cc to the observed distance of the print sample 40)).
Referring to Claim 10, the combination of Katayama in view of Omagari teaches a roll printing machine print system (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Printing System 10) comprising:
a roll printing machine (See Katayama, Fig. 1, The Printing Machine 18);
a print control device (See Katayama, Fig. 4, The print controller 66) that
causes the roll printing machine to print a color adjustment chart (See Katayama, Sect. [0081], The print controller 66 is a control circuit, which is controlled by the controller 62 to energize the printing machine 18. More specifically, the print controller 66 outputs print control signals via the I/F 86 to the printing machine 18 in order to energize the printing machine 18 for producing the print 36.),
wherein the print control device, upon reception of a first print instruction to print a first color adjustment chart (See Sect. [008] lines 5-10, The printing machine 18 controls the propulsion of inks onto a print medium 34 (rolled non-printed medium 34 in FIG. 1), based on a print control signal received from an external apparatus, e.g., the image processing apparatus 16, so as to print a color image on the print medium 34, thereby producing a print 36, which may include a color chart 36c.), temporarily stores the received color adjustment chart and suspends printing, and
wherein the roll printing machine, upon reception of a print instruction to print the first color adjustment chart, rotates a bobbin of roll paper (See Katayama, Sect. [0068], The color chart 36c comprises twenty-seven color patches 50, a surrounding region 52 corresponding to a background portion that surrounds each of the color patches 50 respectively, a sequence of row numbers 541 and a sequence of column numbers 54c for identifying layout positions of the color patches 50 along directions of the rows and columns, and print information 56 for identifying printing conditions for the color chart 36c, all of which are printed on the print medium 34.).
Referring to Claim 11, arguments analogous to claim 1 are applicable herein. Thus, a non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 is explicitly/inherently taught as evidenced by (See Katayama, Fig. 1, Portable Memory 32, Sect. [0093], Programs may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium (e.g., the portable memory 32 shown in FIG. 1), and may be read into a computer system and executed thereby. The term "computer system" includes an operating system (OS) and hardware including peripheral devices. The computer-readable recording medium comprises a portable medium made up of a storage device such as a flexible disk, a magnetooptical disk, a ROM, a CD-ROM, or the like, or a storage unit such as a hard disk or the like incorporated into the computer system. The computer-readable recording medium may also include a medium for dynamically holding programs for a short period of time, such as a communication line for transmitting programs via a network such as the Internet or the like, a communication channel such as a telephone line, or a memory for holding programs for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory in a computer system that serves as a server or a client in a network environment.) and various memories stored therein.
Cited Art
14. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Katayama et al. (US PG. PUB. No. 2011/017617 A1) discloses Color values in an overlapping area, in which at least two of a plurality of acquired gamuts overlap each other, are associated with common information (ID numbers), which is common to prints for producing the at least two gamuts. Print information of the prints is encoded into target color values. Management patches including the encoded target color values are added to the prints.
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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