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 statement (IDS) submitted on 12/11/224 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the moving unit must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2015/0210070 to Murayama et al. “Murayama.”
With regard to Claims 1 and 11, Murayama teaches a printing apparatus (20) comprising:
a plurality of printheads (14) arranged in a first direction [0037];
a moving unit configured to relatively move the plurality of printheads and a print medium in the first direction (claim 8);
a reading unit (17) configured to read a test pattern on a print medium printed by the plurality of printheads [0055];
an analyzing unit (23) configured to analyze the test pattern read by the reading unit [0068]; and
a correcting unit (24) configured to correct displacements of printing positions of the plurality of printheads based on an analysis result obtained by the analyzing unit [0057],
wherein each printhead includes a plurality of chips (31-38) arranged in a longitudinal direction of the printhead which intersects the first direction, each chip including a plurality of nozzles arranged in the longitudinal direction, the test pattern includes a plurality of determination patterns arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction [0065],
each determination pattern includes a pattern printed by each printhead, the analyzing unit analyzes a position displacement between a reference direction and the longitudinal direction of each printhead specified from the plurality of determination patterns [0085-0087],
the reference direction is determined from longitudinal directions of at least two printheads specified from the plurality of determination patterns [0085], and
the correcting unit corrects a displacement of a printing position based on the position displacement analyzed by the analyzing unit [0010, 0057 and 0089-0093].
With regard to Claim 2, Murayama teaches, wherein the plurality of printheads include a first printhead configured to discharge a black ink and a second printhead configured to discharge a cyan ink, and the reference direction is determined from a longitudinal direction of the first printhead and a longitudinal direction of the second printhead specified from the plurality of determination patterns [0059] and [0066-0067].
With regard to Claim 3, Murayama teaches wherein the reading unit includes a plurality of reading elements arranged in an element array direction intersecting the first direction, and at least two longitudinal directions used to determine the reference direction are longitudinal directions excluding longitudinal directions, of the longitudinal directions of the plurality of printheads specified from the plurality of determination patterns, which respectively exhibit a largest displacement and a smallest displacement with respect to the element array direction (fig. 5 and [0073]).
With regard to Claim 5, Murayama teaches wherein the plurality of determination patterns are two determination patterns printed by nozzles of each of chips located at two end portions of each printhead in the longitudinal direction (fig. 6B).
With regard to Claim 6, Murayama teaches wherein the analyzing unit calculates, for each of the printheads, a distance between a straight line which passes through one of the two determination patterns corresponding to the printhead and is oriented in the reference direction and the other of the two patterns [0074].
With regard to Claim 7, Murayama teaches wherein each pattern of the determination patterns is a tile pattern, and each determination pattern includes the tile pattern corresponding to each printhead printed in the second direction [0069-0072].
With regard to Claim 8, Murayama teaches wherein the plurality of chips are arranged in a staggered pattern [0060].
With regard to Claim 9, Murayama teaches wherein the correcting unit sets a correction amount for a position displacement due to an inclination of each printhead in the longitudinal direction for each of the chips [0067, 0075, 0083 and 0103].
With regard to Claim 10, Murayama teaches wherein each printhead is a full-line head [0037].
Examiner Note
The examiner cites particular columns and lines numbers (or paragraphs or figures) in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. The specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim. Other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The primary reason for the allowance of Claim 4 is the inclusion of the limitations the reference direction is determined from longitudinal directions of the printheads, except for the first printhead, specified from the plurality of determination patterns. It is these features found in the claim(s) which have not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2009/0015615 discloses a liquid ejection control apparatus which controls a liquid ejection mechanism having a plurality of nozzle groups made up of a plurality of nozzles, comprising: a correction data acquisition unit which acquires correction data for each nozzle group; an image data separation unit which inputs image data comprising a plurality of pixels and separates the image data into respective split image data, each comprising pixels which are to be formed for liquid ejection by the respective nozzle groups; a split image data correction unit which corrects the respective split image data, on the basis of the correction data for the nozzle groups to which the split image data respectively correspond; and an ejection execution control unit which executes liquid ejection by driving the respective corresponding nozzle groups, on the basis of the corrected split image data.
CN 117261436 A discloses a method for fine tuning the position of ink droplets printed by at least one print head of a printing device, which is a two-dimensional print head comprising a plurality of nozzles. In one step of the method, ink droplets are simultaneously distributed at a plurality of nozzles of each print head, preferably at all nozzles of each print head, to print an image. The print image is captured by a camera (or a plurality of combined cameras), wherein the camera captures the pattern of dots printed by the print head, and the captured pattern is compared with the pattern of nozzles of the print head. If a deviation is detected between the pattern of dots printed by the print head and the nozzle pattern, the ink droplet distribution from at least one nozzle is improved in timing with respect to the ink droplet distribution of other nozzles of the print head for subsequent printing processes. In other words, the ink droplet distribution at a single nozzle is controlled by a delay parameter to compensate for changes in the timing of the distribution of different nozzles of the printhead.
US A1 discloses an inkjet printing apparatus obtains data of a second image by correcting, using shading data, signal values of pixels in an image of a read test pattern so that a signal value of a pixel lower than a value of the shading data becomes a value corresponding to a lowest luminance; specifies an area of a pattern of each of the plurality of inks in the image of the test pattern using the data of a first image and the data of the second image; and calculates a position deviation amount of a printhead based on a position of the pattern of the specified area.
Communication with the PTO
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHARON A POLK whose telephone number is (571)270-7910. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 7-3.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas Rodriguez can be reached at 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
SHARON A. POLK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2853
/Sharon Polk/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
Prosecution Insights