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 .
Claims 1 – 10 are pending in this application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 12/10/2024 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Applicant has provided an explanation of relevance of cited document(s) JP-2021-061559 on pages 1 - 2 of the specification.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claims 1 - 5, 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taki (U.S PreGrant Publication No. 2022/0019165 A1, hereinafter ‘Taki’) in view of Iwase (JP 2019-081620 A, English Machine Translation, hereinafter ‘Iwase’) and further in view of Hirota (JP 2020-019150 A, English Machine Translation, hereinafter ‘Hirota’).
With respect to claim 1, Taki teaches an image reading device (e.g., an image inspection device 4, ¶0024) comprising: a conveyer including a plurality of conveyance paths for conveying a recording medium on which an image is formed (e.g., a conveyor with a plurality of conveyance paths for conveying a sheet on which an image (e.g., chart or patch) is printed, ¶0045 and Fig. 1); a reader that reads the image (e.g. read the image, ¶0045); and a color measurer including a colorimeter that measures a color of the image (e.g., measures a color of the image, ¶0045), wherein the conveyer includes a first conveyance path, a second conveyance path, and a third conveyance path in a conveyance direction (e.g., including a first conveyance path 41, a second conveyance path 42 and a third conveyance path 43 in a conveyance direction, Fig. 1, ¶0046 - ¶0048), but fails to teach (a) that said path lengths of the second conveyance path and the third conveyance path are longer than a path length of the first conveyance path; and (b) that said color measurer is provided on a downstream side of the reader in the second conveyance path or the third conveyance path.
However, with respect to above difference (a) and in the same field of endeavor of conveying paper/sheet and colorimeter, the mentioned claimed limitations are well-known in the art as evidenced by Iwase. In particular, Iwase teaches that path lengths of a second conveyance path and third conveyance are longer than a path length of the first conveyance path (e.g. a reverse conveyance path 34 and a bypass conveyance path 34a, in total length, are inherently longer than a path length of the conveyance path 33, Fig. 1, page 4 of 12).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the image reading device of Taki as taught by Iwase since Iwase suggested with Fig. 1 and page 4 of 12 that such modification would buy more time to convey the printed sheet/paper in order to reduce output speed at time of re-conveyance, and perform re-processing from page; thereby inhibiting reduction of productivity.
Taki, modified by Iwase, fails to teach above difference (b). However, also in the same field of endeavor of conveyance paths and colorimeter(s), the mentioned claimed limitations are well-known in the art as evidenced by Hirota. In particular, Hirota teaches a color measurer is provided in a second conveyance or a third conveyance path (e.g., a color measurer provided in a second conveyance path that is disposed on a downstream side of a reader, Pages 3 - 4 of 10).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the image reading device of Taki in view of Iwase as taught by Hirota since Hirota suggested in pages 3 – 4 of 10 that such modification of having a color measurer in a second/third conveyance path would improve operation rate in order to reduce risk of erroneous detection of color in colorimetric.
With respect to claim 2, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches the image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the second conveyance path and the third conveyance path are branched from the first conveyance path, and merge with the first conveyance path on a downstream side in a conveyance direction of a branch portion from the first conveyance path (According to Fig 1 of Iwase and Fig. 1 of Hirota, a path layout can be designed).
With respect to claim 3, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches the image reading device according to claim 2, wherein the third conveyance path is branched from the second conveyance path (e.g., the bypass conveyance path 34a is branched from the reverse conveyance path 34, Fig. 1).
With respect to claim 4, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches the image reading device according to claim 3, wherein the first conveyance path is formed linearly from an entrance portion toward an exit portion, the second conveyance path is provided so as to detour vertically downward with respect to the first conveyance path, and the third conveyance path is provided so as to detour vertically downward with respect to the second conveyance path (e.g., the bypass conveyance path 34a is branched from the reverse conveyance path 34, Fig. 1; however, the path layout can be designed to have the reverse conveyance path 34 and the bypass conveyance path 34a branched from the conveyance path 33).
With respect to claim 5, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches the image reading device according to claim 2, wherein the first conveyance path is formed linearly from an entrance portion toward an exit portion, the second conveyance path is provided so as to detour vertically downward with respect to the first conveyance path, and the third conveyance path is provided so as to detour vertically downward on a downstream side of the second conveyance path with respect to the first conveyance path (e.g., the bypass conveyance path 34a is branched from the reverse conveyance path 34, Fig. 1; however, the path layout can be designed to have the reverse conveyance path 34 and the bypass conveyance path 34a branched from the conveyance path 33).
With respect to claim 8, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches the image reading device according to claim 2, wherein the reader includes a first scanner that reads an image on a first side of the recording medium, and a second scanner that reads an image on a second side of the recording medium opposite to the first side (e.g., conventional and well-known for double-sided scanning/reading, ¶0037 with ¶0050 - ¶0052; if arguable, Izawa, cited as pertinent (below), teaches these features).
With respect to claim 10, Taki in view of Iwase and further in view of Hirota teaches an image forming system comprising: an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium; and the image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the image reading device conveys a recording medium on which an image has been formed by the image forming apparatus (Fig. 1 – print image(s) and then the image(s) are inspected via conveyance means).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7 and 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.
With respect to claim 6, none of the cited references teaches the image reading device according to claim 1, further comprising a hardware processor that controls the conveyer to convey a recording medium that is a color measurement target by the colorimeter in a conveyance path among the second conveyance path and the third conveyance path in which the color measurer is provided, and to convey a recording medium that is not the color measurement target by the colorimeter in a conveyance path among the first conveyance path, the second conveyance path, and the third conveyance path in which the color measurer is not provided.
Claims 7 and 9 are also objected because these depend on claim 6.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Izawa et al. (JP 2021-061559 A)1
1This reference teaches an image reading device 30 comprises: a conveying unit 40 that conveys a sheet; and a first reading unit (scanner unit 51) that reads an image formed on the sheet. The conveying unit has a first conveying unit 41 that conveys a sheet from an entrance 30a to an exit 30b of the device along a sheet conveyance path 43, and a second conveying unit 42 that conveys a sheet along a bypass path 44 that bypasses part of the sheet conveyance path. The first reading unit is arranged on the sheet conveyance path. A second reading unit (colorimeter 52) different from the first reading unit is arranged on the bypass path; this reference can also be used instead of Hirota.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN M GUILLERMETY whose telephone number is (571)270-3481. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM - 5:00PM.
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/JUAN M GUILLERMETY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2682
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