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
Claims 1-12 are pending in this application.
Drawings
The drawings received on 1/15/2025 are accepted for examination purposes.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/15/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered 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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Giannetti et al. (US-2013/0141763) in view of Giordano et al. (US-2014/0104626).
As to Claim 10, Giannetti teaches ‘A printing support apparatus comprising a hardware processor, wherein the hardware processor [Fig 6 (606] is configured to: acquire print product information on a print product [par 0010, 0015, 0017-0018, 0021 – obtaining individual label printing jobs, where the entry jobs may take place at one point, for example, into a server that can be configured to analyze the orders and send the orders]; acquire, based on the print product information, a piece of document data of the print product from among pieces of document data of print products, the pieces of document data of print products having been prepared in advance [par 0018-0019, 0022-0023 – evaluating a job and analyzing other jobs to determine if other jobs are similar jobs and can be ganged]; generate a print job of printing the piece of document data [par 0020, 0023 – identified similar jobs and their costs are combined (i.e., generated)]; and provide the print job to a printer and cause the printer to output the print product [par 0021, 0024-0025 – performing (i.e., printing) the combined job at the proper location]’.
Giannetti does not disclose expressly ‘print product that is to be packed with an item to be shipped’.
Giordano teaches ‘print product that is to be packed with an item to be shipped [Fig 6, par 0055-0056 – a warehouse printer may be programmed and fed a promotion, invoices and/or shipping labels affixed to outgoing packages]’.
Giannetti and Giordano are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include printing promotions, invoices and/or shipping labels, as taught by Giordano. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that the correct targeted promotion is affixed to the correct outgoing shipment or package. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Giordano with Giannetti to obtain the invention as specified in claim 10.
Further, in regards to claim 12, the printing support apparatus of claim 10 performs printing support method of claim 12.
Further, in regards to claim 1, printing support method of claim 12 is fully embodied on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1.
As to Claim 2, Giannetti teaches ‘wherein the print job includes an instruction to print print products of varying document sizes [par 0010-0012 – ganging and routing label orders, print jobs with multi-format dies, having different rewind standard requirements along a roll as well as different lengths]’.
As to Claim 8, Giordano in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the print job generation processing includes generating a print job that includes printing a mailing label that is to be attached to a delivery container in which the item is placed in addition to printing the print product that is to be packed with the item [Figs 4, 6, par 0042, 0050-0051, 0055 – printing on a pack slip, invoice form or shipping label to be placed on outgoing packages]’.
Giannetti and Giordano are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include printing promotions, invoices and/or shipping labels, as taught by Giordano. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that the correct targeted promotion is affixed to the correct outgoing shipment or package. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Giordano with Giannetti to obtain the invention as specified in claim 8.
As to Claim 9, Giordano in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the print job includes: an instruction to eject the mailing label to an ejection section that is different from an ejection section to which the print product is ejected; an instruction to eject the mailing label first to the same ejection section as the print product; or an instruction to eject the mailing label last to the same ejection section as the print product [par 0049-0050 – warehouse management system instructs promotions to be printed on promotion printers and invoices and shipping labels to be printed on invoice and label printers, or invoice and label printers may also print promotion labels individually or on the same form, alongside with the invoices or shipping labels]’.
Giannetti and Giordano are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include printing promotions, invoices and/or shipping labels, as taught by Giordano. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that the correct targeted promotion is affixed to the correct outgoing shipment or package. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Giordano with Giannetti to obtain the invention as specified in claim 9.
As to Claim 11, Giannetti teaches ‘An advertisement printing system comprising: a printing support apparatus; and a printer, wherein the printing support apparatus comprises a hardware processor, and the hardware processor [Fig 6, par 0030-0032 – system includes a print ordering system with a processor and print service providers (PSPs)] is configured to: acquire print product information on a print product [par 0010, 0015, 0017-0018, 0021 – obtaining individual label printing jobs, where the entry jobs may take place at one point, for example, into a server that can be configured to analyze the orders and send the orders]; acquire, based on the print product information, a piece of document data of the print product from among pieces of document data of print products, the pieces of document data of print products having been prepared in advance [par 0018-0019, 0022-0023 – evaluating a job and analyzing other jobs to determine if other jobs (i.e., prepared in advance) are similar jobs and can be ganged]; generate a print job for printing the piece of document data [par 0020, 0023 – identified similar jobs and their costs are combined (i.e., generated)]; and provide the print job to a printer and cause the printer to output the print product [par 0021, 0024-0025 – performing (i.e., printing) the combined job at the proper location]’.
Giannetti does not disclose expressly ‘print product that is to be packed with an item to be shipped’.
Giordano teaches ‘print product that is to be packed with an item to be shipped [Fig 6, par 0055-0056 – a warehouse printer may be programmed and fed a promotion, invoices and/or shipping labels affixed to outgoing packages]’.
Giannetti and Giordano are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include printing promotions, invoices and/or shipping labels, as taught by Giordano. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that the correct targeted promotion is affixed to the correct outgoing shipment or package. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Giordano with Giannetti to obtain the invention as specified in claim 11.
Claim(s) 3-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Giannetti et al. in view of Giordano et al. and further in view of Ikusawa (US-2018/0270376).
As to Claim 3, Giannetti in view of Giordano teaches all of the claimed elements/features as recited in independent claim 1. Giannetti in view of Giordano does not disclose expressly ‘wherein the print job includes an instruction to eject the print product to one ejection section included in the printer’.
While Giordano teaches warehouse management system instructs promotions to be printed on promotion printers and invoices and shipping labels to be printed on invoice and label printers, or invoice and label printers may also print promotion labels individually or on the same form, alongside with the invoices or shipping labels [par 0049-0050].
Ikusawa in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the print job includes an instruction to eject the print product to one ejection section included in the printer [par 0052, 0056-0057 – image forming unit forms images or sheets processed by the post processor and outputs to the output tray]’.
Giannetti in view of Giordano are analogous art with Ikusawa because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include a post processor and output tray, as taught by Ikusawa. The motivation for doing so would have been to outputting resulting sheets as finished products on output trays. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Ikusawa with Giannetti in view of Giordano to obtain the invention as specified in claim 3.
As to Claim 4, Ikusawa in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the printer includes a cutter, and the print job includes an instruction to perform a process of cutting a medium after printing on the medium [par 0069, 0078 – performing a post processing including a cutting process to be executed after printing]’.
Giannetti in view of Giordano are analogous art with Ikusawa because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include a cutting process, as taught by Ikusawa. The motivation for doing so would have been to outputting resulting sheets as finished/cut products on output trays. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Ikusawa with Giannetti in view of Giordano to obtain the invention as specified in claim 4.
As to Claim 5, Ikusawa and Giannetti in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the printer includes a cutter [Ikusawa: par 0069, 0078 – performing a post processing including a cutting process to be executed after printing], and the print job includes an instruction to perform a process of printing a plurality of the print products on one medium and cutting the medium [Giannetti: Fig 5 (504), par 0011-0012, 0025-0027 – ganging and routing label orders, by combining orders of similar length on printing rolls as week as different lengths along a roll and then coordinate the purchase of a “multi-order format die”, where a die cutting requirement can be imposed as a single job]’.
Giannetti in view of Giordano are analogous art with Ikusawa because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include a cutting process, as taught by Ikusawa and a printing roll with a die cutting requirement, as taught by Giannetti. The motivation for doing so would have been to cutting a multi-order format die from printing rolls outputted on output trays. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Ikusawa with Giannetti in view of Giordano to obtain the invention as specified in claim 5.
As to Claim 6, Ikusawa and Giannetti in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the printer includes a cutter [Ikusawa: par 0069, 0078 – performing a post processing including a cutting process to be executed after printing], and the print job generation processing includes: accepting any one of speed, cost, or a medium as a priority; and generating the print job in accordance with the priority [Giannetti: par 0012, 0017-0018, 0021 – taking into consideration to minimize production cost, shipping costs, and the amount of wasted substrate].
Giannetti in view of Giordano are analogous art with Ikusawa because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include a cutting process, as taught by Ikusawa and minimizing overall production, as taught by Giannetti. The motivation for doing so would have been to cutting a multi-order format die from printing rolls outputted on output trays. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Ikusawa with Giannetti in view of Giordano to obtain the invention as specified in claim 6.
As to Claim 7, Giannetti in view of Giordano in the proposed combination teaches ‘wherein the print job generation processing includes: in a case where the priority is speed, generating a print job including an instruction to perform a process of printing the print products on a minimum number of one or more media and cutting the one or more media; in a case where the priority is cost, selecting a combination of media that minimizes cost of the media and generating a print job in accordance with the combination; and in a case where the priority is a medium, generating a print job including an instruction to prioritize printing on the medium [Giannetti: par 0010-0012, 0017-0018, 0021 – taking into consideration to minimize production cost and times (e.g., print jobs with multi-format dies, having different rewind standard requirements along a roll as well as different lengths), shipping costs (e.g., custom multi-format dies are created as efficiently as possible to maximize the utility of producing a new die layout and sharing the cost of the die among compatible orders at no extra cost), and the amount of wasted substrate/medium (e.g., label imposition will combine orders with similar linear footage in order to minimize the waste of substrate); Giordano: par 0092-0094 – designating print and apply stations for color printing while others are designated for black and white printing and selecting a print station based on load balancing among a plurality of suitable print stations]’.
Giannetti and Giordano in the proposed combination with Ikusawa are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely digital image data printing systems. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include a cutting process, as taught by Ikusawa and printing promotions, invoices and/or shipping labels, as taught by Giordano with Giannetti’s system of multi-format dies. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that the correct targeted promotion is affixed to the correct outgoing shipment or package while balancing load. Therefore, it would have been obvious to incorporate Giordano with Giannetti and Ikusawa to obtain the invention as specified in claim 7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record
a. US Publication No. 2013/0141763
b. US Publication No. 2014/0104626
c. US Publication No. 2018/0270376
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
d. US Patent No. 8,958,104 teaches a finishing processing includes binding, packaging and printing a packing slip and a mailing label
e. EP No. 3450187A1 teaches a printer having a supply roll and a cutter for cutting
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/MIYA J CATO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
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