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 .
Priority
1. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Claims 1,2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Endo USP 11,086,261 in view of Iida et al. USP 7,410,158 and Furumido et al. USP 11,434,099.
Endo discloses, regarding claim 1, a sheet discharge apparatus comprising:
a first stacking member (25) provided outside an apparatus main body (4);
a first conveying device (22) disposed in a first conveying path extending toward the first stacking member in the apparatus main body, wherein the first conveying device conveys a sheet to the first stacking member;
a discharge device (24) configured to receive the sheet conveyed by the first conveying device and discharge the sheet to the first stacking member, wherein the discharge device discharges a plurality of the sheets each conveyed from the first conveying device in the form of a bundle of sheets;
a sheet processing device configured to receive a sheet that is not discharged by the discharge device and processes the received sheet (see at least fig.2, C6/L38-46);
a second stacking member (37) provided outside the apparatus main body, wherein the sheet processed by the sheet processing device is stacked on the second stacking member; and
a controller (101) configured to control the first conveying device and the discharge device to perform a bundle discharge operation for discharging the bundle of sheets from the discharge device onto the first stacking member.
Endo does not expressly disclose the remaining limitations of the claims.
Iida teaches wherein, when a job including a predetermined number of sheets is executed, the predetermined number of sheets is divided into a plurality of sheet bundles each including two or more sheets, and the sheet bundles are discharged onto the first stacking member (fig.3, C6/L63-C7/L55).
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to provide, wherein, when a job including a predetermined number of sheets is executed, the predetermined number of sheets is divided into a plurality of sheet bundles each including two or more sheets, and the sheet bundles are discharged onto the first stacking member, as taught by Iida, in the device of Endo, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of reducing the number of sheets in a bundle so the sheet processing device is capable of sheet processing and reduce power consumption when performing sheet processing (C2/L17-20, C6/L63-C7/L55).
Furumido teaches the controller sets a discharge speed at which a sheet is discharged by the discharge device (101) to a first discharge speed when the bundle of sheets includes a first number of sheets and sets the discharge speed to a second discharge speed that is lower than the first discharge speed when the bundle of sheets includes a second number of sheets that is greater than the first number of sheets (see at least Table 1, C12/L29-61).
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have the controller set a discharge speed at which a sheet is discharged by the discharge device to a first discharge speed when the bundle of sheets includes a first number of sheets and sets the discharge speed to a second discharge speed that is lower than the first discharge speed when the bundle of sheets includes a second number of sheets that is greater than the first number of sheets, as taught by Furumido, in the device of Endo, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of effectively suppressing defective ejection of the bundle of sheets (C12/L56-61).
Endo further discloses, regarding claim 2, wherein the discharge device (24) is a second conveying device disposed downstream of the first conveying device (22) in the first conveying path, and
wherein the discharge device is capable of reversing the conveying direction of the sheet received from the first conveying device and conveying the sheet to a second conveying path that branches from the first conveying path between the first conveying device and the second conveying device (see at least fig.1).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 3-9 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.
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sasahara (PGPub 2010/0195157) discloses dividing the number of sheets to be processed if the total number is not within the sheet processing limit (see at least fig.9; ¶0070-0074).
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LESLIE A. NICHOLSON III whose telephone number is (571)272-5487. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael C McCullough can be reached at 571-272-7805. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LESLIE A NICHOLSON III/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653 7/10/2026
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