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 under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed on 1/20/25, the requirements 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d) are met.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited on a Form PTO 1449 have been considered.
Specification
The specification has been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. However, the applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 “motor is installed on an internal top wall of each white ink bottle”, “a rotating shaft of the stirring paddle is connected to an output end of the motor”, and “each of the ink bottles is provided with a built-in silicone tube”, 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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuno (U.S. 2020/0307238 A1) in view of Kawakita et al. (U.S. 2023/0182474 A1).
Kuno discloses the following claimed limitations:
Regarding independent Claim 1, a DTF (§0024) continuous ink supply device with a built-in stirring function, comprising ink bottles (30, §0031 and Figs. 2-7) including white ink bottles (§§0024, 0030-0031), each ink bottle is provided with a stirring paddle (41, §0031 and Figs. 2-7), a motor (44, §0031 and Figs. 2-7) is installed on an internal top wall of each white ink bottle, a rotating shaft (40, §0031 and Figs. 2-7) of the stirring paddle is connected to an output end of the motor.
Kuno does not disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding independent Claim 1, a box body and a box cover, the box body and the box cover are installed and connected in a detachable up-and-down structure, the ink bottles being installed in the box body, the ink bottles being arranged in six groups, wherein two of the groups are white ink bottles.
Kawakita et al. disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding independent Claim 1, a box body (30, §0046 and Fig. 2) and a box cover (35, §§0046-0052 and Fig. 2), the box body and the box cover are installed and connected in a detachable up-and-down structure (2, §0039 and Fig. 2), the ink bottles being installed in the box body (Fig. 2), the ink bottles being arranged in six groups (Fig. 2). 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 teachings of Kawakita et al. to the device of Kuno to manage an ink supply to multiple printers from the same accessible installation.
Kawakita et al. do not disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding independent Claim 1, wherein two of the groups are white ink bottles. However, Kawakita et al. teach the ink bottle capacity optimization depending on the expected use (§0066 and Fig. 9). 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 optimization of Kawakita et al. to the device of Kuno to enable flexible use of the device. Please note that in the case of CMYK printing with no pretreatment and white background, the expected use of white ink would be higher than that of color inks; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use two white ink bottles to avoid having to make a non-standard bottle for white ink.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuno (U.S. 2020/0307238 A1) in view of Kawakita et al. (U.S. 2023/0182474 A1) as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Ishizawa et al. (U.S. 2012/0013687 A1) and Belongia et al. (U.S. 2007/0023449 A1).
Kuno and Kawakita et al., in combination, disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, all limitations of Claim 1 (from which this Claim depends).
Kuno discloses the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, each of the ink bottles is provided with a built-in tube (53, 54, §0031 and Figs. 2-7).
Kuno and Kawakita et al. do not disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, wherein ink tube joints are arranged on a rear side wall of the box body, and the built-in tube being a silicone tube.
Kuno and Kawakita et al. do not disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, wherein ink tube joints are arranged on a rear side wall of the box body, and the built-in tube being a silicone tube.
Ishizawa et al. disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, wherein ink tube joints are arranged on a rear side wall of the box body (best seen in Figs. 1A-B). 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 arrangement of Kawakita et al. to the device of Kuno to manage the tubing connected to the joints, to avoid damage.
Ishizawa et al. do not disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, the built-in tube being a silicone tube.
Belongia et al. disclose the following claimed limitations:
Regarding Claim 2, the built-in tube being a silicone tube (§0019). 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 silicone tube of Kawakita et al. to the device of Kuno to ensure adequate chemical resistance to ink.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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. Please note, however, the objection to Drawings above: to be allowable, the amended Claims will have to include only the features shown in the Drawings. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter of claims 3-5 is the inclusion of the limitations of an ink supply device including wherein the box cover is provided with a power indicator light and a stirring indicator light, and the box cover is provided with a power button. It is these limitations found in the claims, as it is claimed in the combination of that has not been found, taught or suggested by prior art of record, which makes these claims allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER D SHENDEROV whose telephone number is (571)270-7049. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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 X Rodrigues 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.
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/ALEXANDER D SHENDEROV/Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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