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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I and Species A, claims 1-6 and 10-14 in the reply filed on 20 August 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 7-9 and 15 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 20 August 2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 20 March 2025, 14 August 2026, and 12 September 2026, have been considered.
Drawings
The drawings received on 15 January 2025 are accepted.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Examiner’s Note
The examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record in the body of this action for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. Applicant should consider the entire prior art as applicable as to the limitations of the claims. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the response, to consider fully the entire references as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 6, and 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Onishi (JP 2010-89375) in view of Suyama et al. (US 2021/0086521).
With respect to claim 1, Onishi discloses a liquid droplet jetting apparatus comprising:
a liquid droplet jetting head (Fig. 1, element 102) that jets a liquid paragraph 0041);
a relative movement mechanism (Fig. 1, i.e. horizontal and vertical arrows) that moves a substrate (Fig. 1, element 50) and the liquid droplet jetting head relative to each other (paragraphs 0045-0046); and
a control device (paragraph 0036) that moves the substrate and the liquid droplet jetting head relative to each other and causes the liquid droplet jetting head to jet the liquid, to print an image on the substrate (paragraphs 0045-0046),
wherein a space (Fig. 2, i.e. vertical distance between element 50 and element 202) between the liquid droplet jetting head and the substrate is a vacuum (Fig. 1, element 12; paragraphs 0037-0038), and
the control device (paragraph 0036) circulates the liquid (paragraph 0047) at least during printing (paragraph 0041).
However, Onishi fails to disclose the liquid droplet jetting head includes a circulation flow channel inside the liquid droplet jetting head and the control device circulates the liquid through the circulation flow channel at least during printing.
Suyama discloses a printing system (Fig. 1, element 1) having a liquid droplet jetting head (Fig. 4, element H) that includes a circulation flow channel (Fig. 4, element Hc) inside the liquid droplet jetting head and the control device (Fig. 7, element 100) circulates the liquid (Fig. 6) through the circulation flow channel at least during printing (Fig. 9, i.e. Print Mode & Normal Circulation).
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the circulation system disclosed by Suyama in the printing system of Onishi. The motivation for doing so would have been “to provide a technique capable of suppressing the deterioration of an ink while suppressing the drying of the ink by circulating supplying the ink to a discharge head” (paragraph 0005).
With respect to claim 2, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose the liquid droplet jetting head includes a jetting element including a nozzle, a pressure chamber, and a jetting energy generation element (Suyama at paragraph 0031), and the circulation flow channel (Suyama at Fig. 4, element Hc) includes a supply flow channel (Suyama at Fig. 4, element Hd) for supplying the liquid to the jetting element and a recovery flow channel (Suyama at Fig. 4, element Hd) for recovering the liquid from the jetting element (Suyama at paragraph 0031).
With respect to claim 3, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose a first liquid tank (Suyama at Fig. 6, element 91f) and a second liquid tank (Suyama at Fig. 6, element 91r) that store the liquid, wherein the control device (Suyama at Fig. 7, element 100; paragraphs 0041-0043) supplies the liquid from the first liquid tank to the liquid droplet jetting head (Suyama at Fig. 6, element H) by using a head difference (Suyama at Fig. 6, element 98f), and recovers the liquid from the liquid droplet jetting head to the second liquid tank by using the head difference (Suyama at Fig. 6, element 98r).
With respect to claim 4, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 3 above disclose a chamber (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 12) that internally houses the liquid droplet jetting head (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 102), the relative movement mechanism (Claim 1 above), the first liquid tank (Claim 3 above), and the second liquid tank (Claim 3 above); and an exhaust mechanism (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 16) that creates a vacuum inside the chamber (Onishi at paragraphs 0037-0038), wherein a reference of the head difference is a pressure inside the chamber (Onishi at paragraph 0038).
With respect to claim 6, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose the control device (Suyama at Fig. 7, element 100) sets a circulation amount of the liquid during the printing (Suyama at Fig. 9, i.e. Print Mode & Normal Circulation) to be greater than a circulation amount of the liquid during non-printing (Suyama at Fig. 9, i.e. Stop Mode & Low-Speed Circulation).
With respect to claim 10, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose a chamber (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 12) that internally houses the liquid droplet jetting head (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 102) and the relative movement mechanism (claim 1 above); and an exhaust mechanism (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 16) that creates a vacuum inside the chamber (Onishi at paragraphs 0037-0038), wherein the liquid (Onishi at paragraph 0043) contains a solvent, and the solvent is disposed inside the chamber in an open state.
The examiner notes to applicant that the limitations concerning the type of ink used in the apparatus are not seen to further limit the structure of the apparatus and are not seen to distinguish the apparatus of Onishi in view of Suyama.
With respect to claim 11, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose a chamber (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 12) that internally houses the liquid droplet jetting head (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 102) and the relative movement mechanism (Claim 1 above); an exhaust mechanism (Onishi at Fig. 1, element 16) that creates a vacuum inside the chamber (Onishi at paragraphs 0037-0038); and a circuit element for driving the liquid droplet jetting head (Onishi at paragraph 0036), wherein the circuit element is disposed outside the chamber (Onishi at paragraph 0036, i.e. host PC).
With respect to claim 12, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose the vacuum is 0.5 atmospheres to 0.01 atmospheres (Onishi at paragraph 0039).
With respect to claim 13, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose a cooling mechanism (Onishi at paragraph 0038, i.e. environment) that cools the liquid (Onishi at paragraph 0038, i.e. heat transfer such as conduction, convection, and/or radiation to the environment).
The examiner notes to applicant that the limitations concerning how the apparatus is operated are not seen to further limit the structure of the apparatus and are not seen to distinguish the apparatus of Onishi in view of Suyama.
With respect to claim 14, Onishi in view of Suyama, as applied to claim 1 above disclose the liquid is an aqueous ink containing water as a solvent (Onishi at paragraph 0043).
The examiner notes to applicant that the limitations concerning the type of ink used in the apparatus are not seen to further limit the structure of the apparatus and are not seen to distinguish the apparatus of Onishi in view of Suyama.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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 primary reasons for allowance for claim 5 is that applicant’s claimed invention includes a liquid droplet jetting apparatus further having a liquid feed mechanism that supplies the liquid from the second liquid tank to the first liquid tank wherein the liquid feed mechanism is disposed outside the chamber. It is this limitation, expressed in the claimed combination not found, taught, or suggested in the prior art that makes this claim allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
In view of the foregoing, the above claims have failed to patentably distinguish over the applied art.
The remaining references listed on forms 892 and 1449 have been reviewed by the examiner and are considered to be cumulative to or less material than the prior art references relied upon in the rejection above.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Geoffrey Mruk whose telephone number is (571)272-2810. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4:30 PM.
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, Ricardo Magallanes can be reached at (571) 272-5960. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GEOFFREY S MRUK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 09/25/2026
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