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
The instant claims find support in the provisional application and therefore receive thebenefit to the filing date of 07/21/2022.
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, 8 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Rapkin et al. (US Pat. 8,582,988).
Note: The method steps are inherently taught in the apparatus device/limitations in the rejections as follow:
Rapkin et al. disclose in Figures 4-6 a multi-printer system comprising:
Regarding claim 1, monitoring usage of each of a plurality of consumables within a replaceable element (490, 492) of a print apparatus (column 19, lines 58-62);
determining, for an action of the print apparatus, whether the plurality of consumables can be used interchangeably (column 23, lines 51-57);
in response to determining that the plurality of consumables can be used interchangeably: controlling the print apparatus to select a less used consumable from the plurality of consumables for the action, based on the monitored usage (column 23, lines 51-64);
Regarding claim 8, a usage tracking module (430), to track usage of each of a plurality of consumables (490, 492) within a replaceable element of the print apparatus (column 17, lines 37-46 and column 19, lines 58-62); and
a controller (inherent but not shown), wherein the controller is to select, for an action of the print apparatus, which of the plurality of consumables (490, 492) to use; wherein, for actions where more than one of the plurality of consumables can be used, the controller is to select a less used consumable of the plurality of consumables, based on the tracked usage (column 19, lines 58-65 and column 23, lines 51-64).
Regarding claim 14, determine a usage level of a first consumable (490) and a second consumable (492) of a replaceable element of a print apparatus (printer); for an action of the print apparatus that can use either the first consumable or the second consumable, determine whether to use the first consumable or the second consumable based on the determined usage levels (Figures 2-4, column 17, lines 37-46, column 19, lines 58-62, column 21, lines 19-38, and column 23, lines 51-64).
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. 2005/0253887; US Pub. 2012/0076517; US Pub. 2018/0167520; US Pub. 2020/0094568) cited in the PTO 892 form show an ink jet printer which is deemed to be relevant to the present invention. These references should be reviewed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 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 method comprising a step of providing a replaceable element that is a maintenance cartridge in the combination as claimed.
Claims 9-13 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 print apparatus comprising a replaceable element that is a maintenance and an action is a print fluid waste action in the combination as claimed.
Claim 15 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 non-transitory machine readable medium, storing instructions which, when executed by a processing resource, cause the processing resource to determine usage levels that comprises retrieving a tracking counter associated with each of the first and second consumables; and wherein the non-transitory machine readable medium further comprises instructions to control the print apparatus to perform the action using the determined consumable, and update the tracking counter associated with the determined consumable 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.
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/ANH T VO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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