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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Japan on 12/26/2023. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the JP2023-218826 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/17/2024 has been considered.
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 § 102
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 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.
Claims 1-5, 8, and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yashima et al. (US 8,532,509).
Regarding claim 1, Yashima discloses an image forming apparatus 1 (fig. 1) comprising: an image former 13 that forms an image on a recording medium that includes unevenness on a surface thereof (i.e. embossed paper or normal paper, col. 6, lines 27-39); a reader that reads a pattern image formed on the recording medium by the image former (S22, S24, fig. 11 , col. 12, lines 43-46); and a hardware processor 101, wherein the hardware processor acquires, before formation of the pattern image on the recording medium, unevenness information regarding an amount of unevenness on an image forming surface of the recording medium (embossed or normal paper) and wherein, based on the unevenness information, the hardware processor sets a pattern image forming position satisfying a predetermined condition, and adjusts an operation of forming the pattern image performed by the image former (col. 13, lines 1-22).
Regarding claim 2, Yashima discloses wherein the hardware processor controls an image forming condition in accordance with a reading result of the pattern image read by the reader (col. 11, lines 52-58) .
Regarding claim 3, Yashima discloses a measurer that measures the unevenness, wherein the hardware processor acquires the unevenness information from the measurer (S210, fig. 12).
Regarding claim 4, Yashima discloses a communicator that can communicate with another device and/or a storage 101 in which the unevenness information is stored, wherein the hardware processor acquires the unevenness information from the communicator or the storage (col. 12, lines 50-55).
Regarding claim 5, Yashima discloses wherein the hardware processor determines whether a predetermined portion of the recording medium satisfies the predetermined condition (col. 13, lines 11-14).
Regarding claim 8, Yashima discloses wherein the measurer is provided at a position at which the hardware processor can reflect the unevenness information in the operation of forming the pattern image by the image former (fig. 6A).
Regarding claims 11 and 12 Yashima discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes a computer of an image forming apparatus and an image forming method including, an image former 13 that forms an image on a recording medium that includes unevenness on a surface thereof (i.e. embossed paper or normal paper, col. 6, lines 27-39); and a reader that reads a pattern image formed on the recording medium by the image former (see S22, fig. 11 , col. 12, lines 43-46), the image forming method comprising: acquiring, before formation of the pattern image on the recording medium, unevenness information including an amount and a position of unevenness on an image forming surface of the recording medium; and based on the unevenness information, setting a pattern image forming position satisfying a predetermined condition, and adjusting an operation of forming the pattern image performed by the image former (col. 13, lines 1-22).
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 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yashima et al. in view of Kiuchi et al. (US 2015/0071671).
As discussed above, Yashima discloses all aspects of the claimed invention except for disclosing the hardware processor adjusts an operation of forming the pattern image by the image former in accordance with a size of the pattern image.
Kiuchi teaches an image forming apparatus comprising the hardware processor that adjusts the operation of forming the pattern image by the image former in accordance with the size of the pattern image (par. 0069, fig. 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to configure the image forming apparatus such that the hardware processor can adjust the operation for forming the pattern image based on the size of the pattern image.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yashima et al. in view of Muto (US 8,320,781).
As discussed above, Yashima discloses all aspects of the claimed invention except for disclosing the hardware processor performs an adjustment that changes a size of the pattern image formed by the image former according to the unevenness information.
Muto teaches an image forming apparatus comprising the hardware processor that performs the adjustment that changes the size of the pattern image formed by the image former based on the unevenness information (col. 8, lines 48-54, fig. 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to configure the image forming apparatus such that the hardware processor that can adjust the size of the pattern image formed based on the unevenness information.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As to claims 9-10, the prior art of record neither disclose or suggest the image forming apparatus comprising all the features of claim 1 and wherein the recording medium is a continuous sheet including an embossed surface, and wherein the unevenness information includes an embossing cycle in a conveyance direction of the recording medium.
Conclusion
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/HOANG X NGO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852