DETAILED ACTION
Claims 2, 3 and 5-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/13/2026
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) 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Usami (2023/0166509) in view of Kajino (2021/0314186).
Regarding claim 1, Usami teaches a head system comprising:
a controller (fig. 3, item 7);
a plurality of heads (fig. 3, items 42); and
a plurality of head modules (fig. 3, items 40) connected to the controller in series via communication cables (fig. 3, items 50), the head modules being configured to transfer printing data transmitted by the controller sequentially ([0025]-[0029]), wherein each of the head modules is connected to one of the heads (see fig. 3) and includes a memory (fig. 3, item 41c) and a switch (see fig. 3, note that the transmission direction of the data is two-way, and thus a switch to change the direction of data transmission is necessarily present), the switch being connected to the memory and a downstream communication cable of each of the head modules (see fig. 3), the switch being configured to switch destination of connection of an upstream communication cable of each of the head modules (see fig. 3). Usami does not teach
in a case where one head module included in the head modules receives printing data to be processed by the one head module from an upstream head module which is included in the head modules and is nearer to the controller than the one head module, the switch of the one head module is configured to connect an upstream communication cable of the one head module to the memory of the one head module and disconnect the upstream communication cable of the one head module from a downstream communication cable of the one head module, and
in a case where the one head module receives printing data to be processed by a downstream head module which is included in the head modules and is farther from the controller than the one head module, from the upstream head module, the switch of the one head module is configured to connect the upstream communication cable of the one head module to the downstream communication cable of the one head module and disconnect the upstream communication cable of the one head module from the memory of the one head module. Kajino teaches a series arrangement of slave devices and a master controller, wherein data is transmitted from the master controller to the slave devices sequentially, and wherein each slave device determines which of an upstream or a downstream slave device is nearer the controller from itself is nearer to the controller and switches a direction of transmission in accordance with which of the upstream and downstream devices is nearer (Kajino, see figs. 1-4 and 8-14). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the data routing technique disclosed by Kajino to the printer disclosed by Usami because doing so would result in more efficient data routing from the head modules to the controller.
Upon combination, the resultant device would connect and disconnect the communication cables upstream and downstream as claimed.
Regarding claim 4, Usami in view of Kajino teaches the head system according to claim 1, wherein each of the head modules further includes a control part (Usami, fig. 3, item 41a); and the control part of the one head module is configured to: determine whether the printing data received by the one head module is the printing data to be processed by the one head module, based on print position information attached to the printing data received by the one head module and based on position information of the one head module; control the switch to connect the upstream communication cable of the one head module to the memory of the one head module and disconnect the upstream communication cable of the one head module from the downstream communication cable of the one head module, in a case where the printing data received by the one head module is the printing data to be processed by the one head module; and control the switch to connect the upstream communication cable of the one head module to the downstream communication cable of the one head module and disconnect the upstream communication cable of the one head module from the memory of the one head module, in a case where the printing data received by the one head module is not the printing data to be processed by the one head module (Usami, [0038]-[0040], see fig. 4, Note that the claimed switching necessarily occurs).
Conclusion
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/ALEJANDRO VALENCIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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