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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged 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 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.
Claim Rejections
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. (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kayahara (US Pub. 2021/0162776).
Note: The method steps are inherently taught in the apparatus device/limitations in the rejections as follow:
Kayahara discloses in Figures 1-7 a printing apparatus (10) comprising:
Regarding claim 1, a transport section (16) that transports a medium (printing medium 30) having a pattern (pattern) (Figures 1-2B, paragraph 0019 and claim 3);
an imaging section (15) that captures an image of the medium (30) (Figures 1-2B, paragraph 0034);
a printing section (17) that performs printing on the medium (30) (Figures 1-2B, paragraph 0022); and
a control section (11) that performs a print process after performing a pre-print process, wherein the control section, as the pre-print process, acquires pattern data (S102, Fig. 4) that relates to the pattern (40) of the medium (30) and expands print data that is to be printed by the printing section (17) to generate expansion data (41a, 41b, 41c or 51a, 51b, 51c) and, as the print process, acquires captured pattern data that relates to the pattern of the medium captured by the imaging section, generates, based on the captured pattern data, conversion data based on the expansion data, and prints the conversion data on the medium using the printing section (Figures 1 and 3-7, paragraphs 0036-0041).
Regarding claim 2, wherein the control section (11), as the pre-print process, separates the print data into first print data (surrounded start image, Fig.6), which is located within the pattern data (40) and overlaps with the pattern data (40), and third print data (41), which is located outside the pattern data (40) and does not overlap with the pattern data (40) and generates first expansion data and third expansion data, respectively (Figures 1 and 6).
Regarding claim 3, wherein the control section (11), as the pre-print process, if the print data (40) has second print data (start image, Fig.6), which is located within the first print data (surrounded start image, Fig.6), separates the second print data together with the first print data and when generating the first expansion data, corrects the first expansion data so that the second print data is located within the first expansion data (Figures 1 and 6).
Regarding claim 7, a method for controlling a printing device (10) that includes a transport section (16) that transports a medium (30) having a pattern (pattern), an imaging section (15) that captures an image of the medium, and a printing section (17) that performs printing on the medium (30), and performs a print process after performing a pre-print process, the method for controlling the printing device (10) comprising:
as the pre-print process, acquiring pattern data (S102) that relates to the pattern (pattern) of the medium (30) and expanding print data (40) that is to be printed by the printing section (17) to generate expansion data (41a-41d), and, as the print process, acquiring captured pattern data (106) that relates to the pattern of the medium (30) captured by the imaging section (15), generating, based on the captured pattern data, conversion data (50) based on the expansion data, and printing the conversion data on the medium using the printing section (17) (Figures 1 and 3-7, paragraphs 0036-0041 and 0062).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. These prior art references (US Pub. 2015/0169258; US Pub. 2022/0169041; US Pub. 2023/0129982) cited in the PTO 892 form show an ink cartridge which is deemed to be relevant to the present invention. These references should be reviewed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5 would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. These claims would be allowable because the prior art references of record fail to teach or suggest a printing device comprising a control section as a print process that generates first conversion data based on first expansion data, generates third conversion data based on the third expansion data, and combines the first conversion data and the third conversion data to obtain the conversion data that is printed by the printing section in the combination as claimed.
Claim 6 would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. This claim would be allowable because the prior art references of record fail to teach or suggest a printing device comprising a control section as a pre-print process, that performs a binarization process on the acquired pattern data to set a first feature point that relates to an edge of the pattern data and as the print process, performs the binarization process on the acquired captured pattern data to extract a second feature point that corresponds to the first feature point, and generates the conversion data based on a result of comparing the first feature point and the second feature point in the combination as claimed.
CONCLUSION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Anh Vo whose telephone number is (571) 272-2262. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 9:30 A.M.to 6:00 P.M..
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner'ssupervisor, Douglas Rodriguez can be reached on (571) 431-0716. The fax phonenumber for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from thePatent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information forpublished applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR.Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only.
For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Shouldyou have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the ElectronicBusiness Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from aUSPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated informationsystem, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANH T VO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
Prosecution Insights