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 Objections
Claim 3 is 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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Date et al. (US 20170021615 A1) in view of Li et al. (CN 205336168 U).
Regarding claim 1, Date discloses A recording device (see fig. 1) including a piezoelectric element (Pzt, fig. 4) and a recording head ejecting liquid by driving the piezoelectric element (inherent in fig. 3-4), and performing recording by the liquid ejected by the recording head (inherent in fig. 1), the recording device comprising:
an amplifier unit (430, fig. 5,14, para 141-146) amplifying and outputting residual vibration voltage caused by residual vibration generated in the piezoelectric element after the piezoelectric element is driven by a drive signal (see Abstract, para 77,135,141-146); and
a setting unit setting an amplification factor of the residual vibration voltage by the amplifier unit (inherent in fig. 14, para 141-146), wherein
the amplifier unit includes,
an operational amplifier (542, fig. 14, para 141-143),
a first resistor (R0, fig. 14, para 141-146) connected to the operational amplifier,
a plurality of switches (Sw0-Sw7, fig. 14, para 141-146), and
a plurality of second resistors (R1-R8, fig. 14, para 141-146) having different resistance values (Date is silent regarding the resistance values of R0-R8. However, a plurality of second resistors having different resistance values is taught in Li below.) and connected to the operational amplifier via each of the plurality of switches (see fig. 14),
the recording device includes a selection unit (544, fig. 14, para 141-146) selecting any one of the plurality of switches in accordance with the amplification factor set by the setting unit so as to connect any one of the plurality of second resistors to the operational amplifier (see fig. 14, para 141-146), and
the amplifier unit amplifies the residual vibration voltage with an amplification factor according to a resistance ratio between the first resistor and the second resistor selected by the selection unit (see fig. 14, para 141-146).
Date does not appear to explicitly disclose the following italicized portion: a plurality of second resistors having different resistance values.
However, Date, as modified by Li, discloses the italicized portion: a plurality of second resistors having different resistance values (Li discloses an alternative layout to switching the amplification gain of an op-amp. See Li’s fig. 2 and the highlighted portions of the translation of Li that teach differently valued resistances R4-R7 and corresponding switches S1-S5. Note that the “first resistor” in Li could be at least any one of the resistors found in the ADC, MCU, or DAC, or R1, R2, or R3, or the inherent parasitic resistance in any of the lines connected to the op-amp.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace Date’s gain switching layout with Li’s since Li’s layout is simply an alternative layout that accomplishes the same objective as Date’s, and choosing a layout is merely a design choice.
Regarding claim 2, Date, as modified by Li, further discloses The recording device according to claim 1, wherein an anomaly in the recording head is detected based on the residual vibration voltage amplified by the amplifier unit (see Date’s Abstract, para 77,135,141-146).
Regarding claim 4, Date, as modified by Li, further discloses The recording device according to claim 1, further comprising: a generation unit (Date’s 120, fig. 5) generating a plurality of drive signals according to a plurality of drive patterns of the piezoelectric element (Date’s fig. 12).
Regarding claim 5, Date, as modified by Li, further discloses The recording device according to claim 1, further comprising: a designation unit (Date’s 510, fig. 5, para 78-88) designating a drive signal for driving the piezoelectric element from among the plurality of drive signals (see Date’s para 78-88); and a switch unit (Date’s 520, fig. 5,6, para 78-88) outputting a drive signal designated by the designation unit from among the plurality of input drive signals to the piezoelectric element (see Date’s fig. 5, para 78-88).
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Date et al. (US 20170021615 A1) in view of Oishi (US 20080197924 A1).
See fig. 6 of Oishi. It would be obvious to replace Date’s gain switching layout with Oishi’s since Oishi’s layout is simply an alternative layout that accomplishes the same objective as Date’s, and choosing a layout is merely a design choice. Explicit item-to-item matching has been omitted due to limited resources.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Date et al. (US 20170021615 A1) in view of Liang (CN 2252982 Y).
See fig. 2 of Liang. It would be obvious to replace Date’s gain switching layout with Liang’s since Liang’s layout is simply an alternative layout that accomplishes the same objective as Date’s, and choosing a layout is merely a design choice. Explicit item-to-item matching has been omitted due to limited resources.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Date et al. (US 20170021615 A1) in view of Curran, Jr. (US 4520304 A).
See 12, fig. 2 of Curran, Jr. It would be obvious to replace Date’s gain switching layout with Curran Jr’s since Curran Jr’s layout is simply an alternative layout that accomplishes the same objective as Date’s, and choosing a layout is merely a design choice. Explicit item-to-item matching has been omitted due to limited resources.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN SEO whose telephone number is (571)270-1327. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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/JUSTIN SEO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
August 6, 2026
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