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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/13/2024 and 04/08/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yusuke Yamada (US 20190034140 A1) in view of Bret M. Anno (US 20210405935 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Yamada discloses a printing device that executes printing on the basis of print data (¶ [61]), a server that receives a notification of a state of the printing device (¶ [84-85]), the printing device comprising:
at least one memory storing instructions (¶ [61]; Fig. 2); and
at least one processor that is in communication with the at least one memory and that, when executing the instructions, cooperates with the at least one memory to execute processing (¶ [61] and ¶ [65]), the processing including
sending, to the server, the notification of the state of the printing device in accordance with progress of the printing (¶ [83-85]); and
determining, when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, whether a print job to be processed consecutively is present (¶ [83] new job assigned when printer in idle state; ¶ [141] subsequent print job being plurality of jobs performed consecutively), and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controlling the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (¶ [141-142]; see also ¶ [85] wherein a event change triggers status communication from the printer to the server).
Yamada fails to explicitly disclose the print data being obtained from the server and the server returning a response indicating a predetermined upper limit is exceeded when a notification of the state of the printing device is made at a frequency exceeding the upper limit.
Anno, in the same field of endeavor of communicating print status between a server and a printing system (¶ [45]), teaches the print data being obtained from the server (¶ [39] indicating the print data is transmitted from the server) and the server returning a response indicating a predetermined upper limit is exceeded when a notification of the state of the printing device is made at a frequency exceeding the upper limit (¶ [48] and ¶ [50]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed for the printing device as disclosed by Yamada comprising a processor that executes processing including sending a the notification of the state of the printing device in accordance with progress of the printing to utilize the teachings of Anno which teaches the print data being obtained from the server and the server returning a response indicating a predetermined upper limit is exceeded when a notification of the state of the printing device is made at a frequency exceeding the upper limit to avoid network congestion and delay of printing to provide a more efficient printing system.
Yamada fails to explicitly disclose the printer receiving, from the server, a response to the notification of the state sent.
Anno teaches the printer receiving, from the server, a response to the notification of the state sent (¶ [39] status indicator received and ¶ [48-50] response sent in response to status indicator for job request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed for the printing device as disclosed by Yamada comprising a processor that executes processing including sending a the notification of the state of the printing device in accordance with progress of the printing to utilize the teachings of Anno which teaches the printer receiving, from the server, a response to the notification of the state sent to avoid network congestion and delay of printing to provide a more efficient printing system.
Regarding claim 2, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), wherein the processing includes
storing the state of the printing device sent to the server by the sending in a storage (¶ [68]),
wherein even when the state of the printing device to be sent to the server matches the state of the printing device stored in the storage, the controlling controls the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (¶ [85-86] indicating an event causing a status “change” will prompt transferring of the state information, reading on the current state stored in the server matching the state of the printer presently).
Regarding claim 3, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), further comprising:
a job management table that stores a state of a print job (¶ [65]),
wherein the controlling refers to the job management table when the print job is completed and the printing device enters the idle state (¶ [91] and ¶ [150]), and if a print job in a state of being processed or standing by for processing is present, determines that the print job to be processed consecutively is present (Fig. 16; ¶ [149]).
Regarding claim 4, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), wherein when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, the controlling immediately determines whether a print job to be processed consecutively is present (see rejection of claim 1), and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controls the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (¶ [85], ¶ [88] and ¶ [140-142]).
Regarding claim 5, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), wherein when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, if the print job to be processed consecutively is determined not to be present (¶ [92]), the controlling determines whether the print job to be processed consecutively is present in a predetermined length of time, and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controls the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (¶ [92]).
Regarding claim 6, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), wherein when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, the controlling determines whether a print job to be processed consecutively is present in a predetermined length of time, and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controls the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (see rejection of claim 5).
Regarding claim 7, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1), wherein the processing comprises
saving a history in which the state of the printing device sent to the server is associated with a time at which the state was sent (¶ [81] acquisition time information),
wherein when the state of the printing device changes, the controlling obtains a frequency at which the state of the printing device has been sent in a most recent predetermined length of time by referring to the history, and if the frequency exceeds a predetermined upper limit, controls the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (¶ [92]).
Regarding claim 8, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 7 (see rejection of claim 7), wherein the processing comprises displaying information based on the state of the printing device sent to the server (Fig. 17).
Regarding claim 9, Yamada discloses the printing device according to claim 8 (see rejection of claim 8), wherein information based on a response received from the server is further displayed by the displaying (see rejection of claim 1 wherein the server returns a notification indicating max number of requests reached).
Regarding claim 10, Yamada discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in which at least one program is stored (¶ [7]) and, when the at least one program is loaded and executed by a computer, the program causing the computer to execute processing (¶ [27]), the processing including
sending, to the server, the notification of the state of the printing device in accordance with progress of the printing (see rejection of claim 1);
receiving, from the server, a response to the notification of the state sent (see rejection of claim 1); and
determining, when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, whether a print job to be processed consecutively is present, and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controlling the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (see rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 11, Yamada discloses a control method for a printing device that executes printing on the basis of print data obtained from a server that receives a notification of a state of the printing device and returns a response indicating a predetermined upper limit is exceeded when the notification of the state of the printing device is made at a frequency exceeding the upper limit (see rejection of claim 1), the method comprising:
sending, to the server, the notification of the state of the printing device in accordance with progress of the printing (see rejection of claim 1);
receiving, from the server, a response to the notification of the state sent (see rejection of claim 1); and
determining when a print job is completed and the printing device has entered an idle state, whether a print job to be processed consecutively is present, and if the print job to be processed consecutively is present, controlling the sending to not send the notification of the state of the printing device (see rejection of claim 1).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMARES Q WASHINGTON whose telephone number is (571) 270-1585. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:30pm.
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/JAMARES Q WASHINGTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
September 3, 2026
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