DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 22 July 2026 has been entered.
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.
Claims 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kasuga (JP 2021-050050).
Regarding claim 16, Kasuga discloses an image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming device 3a to form an image on a sheet; a sheet stacking portion 15 disposed above the image forming device to stack the sheet on which the image has been formed by the image forming device; a blower fan 20 to take in air; and a duct 25 through which the air taken in flows, wherein the blower fan has an inlet for taking in air and an outlet for blowing the air, and the inlet and the outlet are opposed to each other, the outlet of the blower fan and a wall of the duct are opposed to each other, the wall of the duct includes: a first wall opposed to the outlet of the blower fan; and a second wall located outside the first wall, the second wall not being opposed to the outlet of the blower fan, and the air blown out from the outlet of the blower fan collides with the wall of the duct and is exhausted from an exhaust port 21a via the second wall. See Fig. 6, shown below with annotations.
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Regarding claim 17, Kasuga discloses the image forming apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the air taken in from the inlet of the blower fan and blown out from the outlet is exhausted in a direction intersecting the sheet ejection direction. See Fig. 5 – the direction (F1) of air blown out from the outlet intersects with the direction of sheets exiting sheet discharge port 11.
Regarding claim 18, Kasuga discloses the image forming apparatus according to claim 16, wherein a distance from the outlet of the blower fan to the first wall of the duct is shorter than a distance from the second wall to the exhaust port 21a. See Fig. 6.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 are allowed.
Claim 19 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 nearest prior art does not teach or suggest the claimed subject matter. For example, Sakagami (US 11,447,357) does not disclose everything claimed, including the first and second air-intake ports as claimed, in combination with the rest of the claimed elements.
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues that Kasuga does not disclose a wall of the duct that includes a first wall opposed to the outlet of the blower fan and a second wall located outside the first wall and not opposed to the outlet of the blower fan. Remarks, p. 9. The Examiner respectfully disagrees, as explained in the rejection of claim 16, above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeremy R. Severson, whose telephone number is (571)272-2209. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday.
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/JEREMY R SEVERSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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