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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by. Ohnishi et al. (US 2009/0244230).
Ohnishi et al. disclose the following claimed limitations:
* Re clm 1, a method for ink jet printing/inkjet printer 1/ a multi-layer print job with UV curable ink by means of a printer/1/ having a print assembly (Abst., fig 1)
* a print head/11/ and a curing device/13, 14/ (para 0030, fig 2);
* the multi-layer print job, a plurality of layers intended to be processed in-line on top of each other in a printing step and a curing step, wherein each layer is intended to be processed in a plurality of passes of the print assembly across the print medium, to receive a dedicated load of UV curable ink and to be irradiated with a dedicated predetermined dose of UV curing light (paras 0056-0058, figs 5-10B)
* wherein determining for each layer a first dose of UV curing light to be received by the layer from the curing device when processing the layer (para 0043, 20mJ/cm2 );
* determining for each layer a second dose of UV curing light to be received by the layer from the curing device when curing at least one layer which is intended to be printed on top of the layer (para 0052, figs 5-10B):
* wherein for each layer a sum of the first dose and the second dose approximately equals the dedicated predetermined dose of UV curing light/200mJ/cm2/ (para 0052);
* determining for each layer a number of passes of the print assembly over the print medium which number of passes corresponds to the first dose of UV curing light (paras 0056-0061, figs 5-9),
* processing the multi-layer print job wherein each layer is printed in the determined number of passes and is cured with the determined first dose of UV curing light. light (paras 0056-0061, figs 5-9),
* Re clm 2, wherein at least one layer of the plurality of layers substantially decreases the second dose to be determined for each of the preceding to be processed layers (paras 0026-0052, figs 1-13).
* Re clm 3, wherein the at least one layer blocks an UV irradiation by the curing device of the layers which are processed before processing the at least one layer (paras 0026-0052, figs 1-13).
* Re clm 4, wherein the print medium is a substantially imperforate light permeable material/a transparent plastic or semi-transparent member, polycarbonate film/ (paras 0005, 0026, figs 1, 2).
* Re clm 6, wherein the method comprises the step of determining for each layer the dedicated predetermined dose of UV curing light by taking into account which kind of UV curable ink is intended to be used when printing the layer (paras 0043-0052, figs 1-13).
* Re clm 7, a printer for ink jet printing a multi-layer print job with UV curable ink, the printer
* a print assembly/inkjet printer 1/
* a print head/11/ and a curing device/13, 14/
* a print controller/7/ to control a processing of the multi-layer print job in a printing step and a curing step, the multi-layer print job comprising a plurality of layers intended to be processed in-line on top of each other, wherein each layer is intended (paras 0043-0058, figs 3-10B);
* to be printed by a different section of the print head11/ (para 0030, fig 2);
* to be processed in a plurality of passes of the print assembly across the print medium, (paras 0056-0061, figs 5-9),
* to receive a dedicated load of UV curable ink (paras 0043-0058, figs 5-10B);
* to be irradiated with a dedicated predetermined dose of UV curing light, and wherein the print controller/7/ is configured to perform (paras 0056-0058, figs 3-10B).
* Re clm 8, a computer program product, including computer readable code embodied on a computer readable medium, said computer readable code comprising instructions for executing (para 0038, figs 1-4)
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 reason for allowance of claim 5 is the inclusion of a method steps of ink jet printing a multi-layer print job that includes, the step of adapting a jet frequency of ejecting drops of the UV curable ink onto the print medium in order to reach a predetermined productivity of the printer, and re-determining the number of passes per layer accordingly. It is this step found in the claim, as it is claimed in the combination of that has not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes these claims allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRISTAL FEGGINS whose telephone number is (571)272-2254. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 930-530pm.
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/KRISTAL FEGGINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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