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 .
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.
Claims 1, and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), Embodiment 4, in view of Gilliland et al. (US 5,349,377) with LeSueur et al. (US 5,204,698) incorporated by referenced.
Regarding claim 1, Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), embodiment 4, teach an image forming device (fig.1) that forms an image on a sheet, the image forming device comprising: a toner container that houses toner (fig.1, #4Y-#4K); a developing device that forms a toner image on a surface of an image carrier using the toner supplied by the toner container (fig.1, #44 forming on #22); a developing power supply that supplies the developing device with a developing bias, which is a predetermined voltage (fig.2, #101 to ‘OTHER UNITS’; ex.fig.20, #S34; para.0100,0156,0159&0194); an image sensor that detects an image density of the toner image (fig.1&3, #60); and a controller (fig.2, #11) configured to execute: image forming processing to form the toner image on the surface of the image carrier based on image data (para.0158&0167), and image quality adjusting processing to form an image quality adjusted toner image, and to adjust a value of the developing bias based on image density information detected by the image sensor (para.0155-0162&0274-0280), wherein the controller includes: a remaining amount determining processor that determines whether any toner is left in the toner container based on image density information of the image quality adjusted toner image detected by the image sensor when the image quality adjusting processing is performed (para.0285), wherein the controller is further configured to: repeatedly execute, at a first interval, first processing that performs only the image quality adjusting processing (fig.25; para.0274-0285; repeatedly in the ‘first state’ interval), and after completion of the first processing, repeatedly execute, at a second interval that is shorter than the first interval: second processing that performs the image quality adjusting processing and determining processing using the remaining amount determining processor (para.0290-0291; continues repeatedly in the ‘second state’ interval which is shorted by nature).
Regarding claim 6, Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), embodiment 4, teach an image forming device wherein the remaining amount determining processor determines that no toner is left in the toner container in a case that an image density, detected by the image sensor, of the image quality adjusting toner image does not reach a target density even by changing the value of the developing bias and forming the image quality adjusted toner image during the image quality adjusting processing (para.0282&0285).
Regarding claim 7, Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), embodiment 4, teach an image forming device wherein: the image forming device further comprises a display, and the controller is further configured to display, on the display, a message indicating that the toner container is empty in a case that the remaining amount determining processor determines that no toner does not remain is left in the toner container(para.0280&0291).
Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), embodiment 4, also allows for judging an abnormally low state prior to getting to that point by a manner other than density alone, and that this would appropriately lead to the same result (para.0290).
However, Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), embodiment 4, fail to teach what that alternate early judgement would be and thus does not teach a first cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a first cumulative print rate obtained by adding and cumulating a sheet print rate, which is a ratio between an area of the toner image formed during the image forming processing and an area of the sheet, is calculated from the image data and the sheet print rate obtained each time the image forming processing is performed.
Regarding claim 1, Gilliland et al. (US 5,349,377) [US’377], with reference to LeSueur et al. (US 5,204,698) [US’698] incorporated by reference (US’377: col.4, ln.31-35), teach an image forming device that forms an image on a sheet (#10), the image forming device comprising: a toner container that houses toner (#20); a developing device that forms a toner image on a surface of an image carrier using the toner supplied the toner container (#18 forming on #12); and a controller (#14, #16, & #22-34) configured to execute: image forming processing to form the toner image on the surface of the image carrier based on image data (col.4, ln.60-68), wherein the controller includes: a first cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a first cumulative print rate by accumulating, for each execution of the image forming processing, a sheet print rate that is a ratio between an area of the toner image formed during the image forming processing and an area of the sheet, the sheet print rate being calculated based on the image data (US’377: col.5, ln.3-40; col.2, ln.47-57; col.4, ln.31-35 [->] US’698: col.2, ln.3-5), and a remaining amount determining processor that determines whether any toner is left in the toner container based on image density information of the toner image detected by the image sensor (US’698: col.3, ln.60-col.4, ln.32), wherein the controller is further configured to: repeatedly execute, at a first interval, first processing until the first cumulative print rate exceeds a predetermined first reference value and until a first execution of the image quality adjusting processing after the first cumulative print rate is completed (US’377: col.5, ln.45-64; US’698: col.3, ln.40-59), and after completion of the first processing, repeatedly execute, at a second interval that is shorter than the first interval: second processing that performs the image quality adjusting processing and determining processing using the remaining amount determining processor (US’377: col.5, ln.61-66; US’698: col.4, ln.1-5 & ln.38-50).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify the apparatus controls of Hama et al. (US Pub.2005/0185973), Embodiment 4, with the two stage controls of Gilliland et al. (US 5,349,377) with LeSueur et al. (US 5,204,698) which change to using the density as a remaining toner indicator as well toward the end of life because it provides a known control system that provides savings (US’377: col.7, ln.25-30) with a more finely tuned ‘out of toner’ period leading to improved control and stability (US’698: col.4, ln.46-50).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 are 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:
Prior art does not disclose or suggest the claimed “a second cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a second cumulative print rate by accumulating, for each execution of the image forming processing, the sheet print rate after the image quality adjusting processing is performed in the second processing , the first interval is defined by a number of processed sheets, which is a number of sheets to be subjected to the image forming processing, and the second interval is defined by a value of the second cumulative print rate” in combination with the remaining claim elements as set forth in claim 2.
Prior art does not disclose or suggest the claimed “a second cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a second cumulative print rate by accumulating, for each execution of the image forming processing, the sheet print rate after the image quality adjusting processing is performed in the second processing, and a continuation determiner that determines whether a state is a first state where next image data for performing next image forming processing is present during the second processing, or a second state where the next image data is not present during the second processing and the controller is further configured to determine whether to execute the second processing based on results of the second cumulative print rate calculator and the continuation determiner” in combination with the remaining claim elements as set forth in claims 3-5.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 6 and 7 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAURA K ROTH whose telephone number is (571)272-2154. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 7:30AM-3:30 PM.
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/LKR/
8/20/2026
/STEPHANIE E BLOSS/ Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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