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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/07/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5 are pending in this application.
Oath/Declaration
The receipt of Oath/Declaration is acknowledged.
Drawings
6. The receipt of Drawings is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
7. 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 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.
8. 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.
9. The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
10. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
11. Claims 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katsuki (US PG. Pub. 2023/0302807 A1) in view of Kuroyanagi (US PG. Pub. 2021/0276335 A1).
Referring to Claim 1, Katsuki teaches a printing apparatus including a display unit (See Katsuki, Figs. 1-2, Liquid Supply System 1 with Touch Panel Display 18), comprising:
one or more memories (See Katsuki, Fig. 2, Memory of Storage 150, Sect.
[0039], The storage 150 may be implemented by various storage media mentioned above, or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM) or the like.) storing instructions (See Katsuki, Sect. [0038] lines 11-14, The program may be stored in advance in the storage 150 including a non-transitory storage medium, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or flash memory.), and
one or more processors that execute the stored instructions (See Katsuki, Fig.
2, CPU of Controller 100, Sect. [0038] lines 3-5, The controller 100 is, for example, implemented by a hardware processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), executing a program (software).), which cause the printing apparatus to:
record, in a case where a remaining amount of a recording material in a
consumable product mounted on the printing apparatus is less than a first predetermined amount (See Katsuki, Sect. [0051], The controller 300 includes, for example, a notification controller 301. The notification controller 301 causes the notifier 32 to issue a notification of various types of information based on information received from the liquid supply device 10. Specifically, when the information, which indicates a determination result, received from the liquid supply device 10 indicates that the storage amount of ink capable of being supplied via the liquid supply path 11 from the liquid container TK is less than or equal to the predetermined lower limit, the notification controller 301 causes the notifier 32 to issue a notification of information indicating that refilling with ink is desired.), notification-transmitted information indicating that a notification requesting a delivery of the consumable product has been transmitted (See Katsuki, Sect. [0060], at step S206, the notification controller 301 causes the notifier 32 to issue a notification of various types of information based on information received from the liquid supply device 10. Specifically, when the information, which indicates a determination result, received from the liquid supply device 10 indicates that the storage amount of ink capable of being supplied is less than or equal to the predetermined lower limit, the notification controller 301 causes the notifier 32 to issue a notification of information indicating that refilling with ink is desired.), to a first storage unit included in the mounted consumable product, and externally transmit the notification (See Katsuki, Sect. [0058], ] Then, at step S204, the determiner104 causes the communicator 110 to transmit information indicating a determination result to the server device 30. The information indicating a determination result includes, for example, a determination result and information indicating the type of ink related to the determination result. The information indicating the type of ink is information indicating, for example, the first to fourth inks);
record the information indicating that the notification has been transmitted as information on the mounted consumable product to a second storage unit included in the printing apparatus (See Katsuki, Sect. [0062], The liquid supply system 1 includes the notifier 32 that issues a notification of the storage amount of ink capable of being supplied via the liquid supply path 11 from the liquid container TK being less than or equal to the predetermined lower limit. When the liquid supply path 11-1 is selected by the selector 102, the on-off valve 15-1 and the pump 16 supply ink contained in the liquid container TK-1 via the liquid supply path 11-1 to the cartridge CR. When the liquid supply path 11-2 is selected by the selector 102, the on-off valve 15-2 and the pump 16 supply ink contained in the liquid container TK-2 via the liquid supply path 11-2 to the cartridge CR.), based on the information recorded in the first storage unit (See Katsuki, Sect. [0065], According to such a configuration, by using the coupling portion 12, the liquid supply device 10 may separate the coupling between the liquid supply path 11 and the injecting portion 13. Thereby, the liquid supply device 10 may facilitate replacement of the injecting portion 13.).
Katsuki fails to explicitly teach
perform, in a case where the consumable product is removed from the printing apparatus, and the information indicating that the notification has been transmitted is not recorded in the second storage unit, display on the display unit of the printing apparatus indicating that the notification has not been transmitted and prompting a user to mount the consumable product on the printing apparatus.
However, Kuroyanagi teaches
perform, in a case where the consumable product is removed from the printing apparatus, and the information indicating that the notification has been transmitted is not recorded in the second storage unit, display on the display unit of the printing apparatus indicating that the notification has not been transmitted and prompting a user to mount the consumable product on the printing apparatus (See Kuroyanagi, Sect. [0112]-[0113], As the caution message, for example, the display 130 may display such as “please remove the cartridge of the black”. The user confirms the caution message displayed on the display 130 and then removes the cartridge 2 of the black ink, for example, from the liquid discharging apparatus 1. If the cartridge 2 is removed due to the caution therefor (S22), then the controller 100 determines whether or not the sub tank 3 without the cartridge 2 installed thereto is the sub tank 3 corresponding to the black ink (S23), based on the detection signal from the installation detector 22. If the sub tank 3 without the cartridge 2 installed thereto is the sub tank 3 corresponding to the black ink (S23: Yes), then the controller 100 installs the second cap portion 60B to the second nozzle 422 (S24).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Katsuki to incorporate the teachings of Kuroyanagi to perform, in a case where the consumable product is removed from the printing apparatus, and the information indicating that the notification has been transmitted is not recorded in the second storage unit, display on the display unit of the printing apparatus indicating that the notification has not been transmitted and prompting a user to mount the consumable product on the printing apparatus. Doing so would provide a liquid discharging apparatus capable of preventing the head from failing to discharge the liquid, See Sect. [0006] as recognized by Kuroyanagi.
Referring to Claim 2, the combination of Katsuki in view of Kuroyanagi teaches the printing apparatus according to claim 1 (See Katsuki, Figs. 1-2, Liquid Supply System 1), wherein in a case where mounting of the removed consumable product on the printing apparatus is detected after the display is performed, in response to receipt of a user's selection indicating that the notification is to be transmitted, the notification is transmitted (See Katsuki, Fig. 3, Sect. [0052], As illustrated in FIG. 3, the notification controller 301 causes the notifier 32 to display an image including a message MS1 representing, based on a determination result, that the remaining amount of ink is low and refilling with ink is desired. Thereby, the notifier 32 issues a notification to the administrator of the server device 30. The message MS1 is, for example, a message stating “The remaining amount of the first ink is low. Please refill.”, which includes the type of ink included in a determination result indicating a predetermined lower limit.).
Referring to Claim 3, the combination of Katsuki in view of Kuroyanagi teaches the printing apparatus according to claim 2 (See Katsuki, Figs. 1-2, Liquid Supply System 1), wherein in a case where mounting of the removed consumable product on the printing apparatus is detected after the display is performed, based on a fact that a difference between the remaining amount of the recording material in the consumable product and the first predetermined amount is less than a second predetermined amount, and in response to receipt of the user's selection, the notification is transmitted (See Katsuki, Sect. [0046], The determiner 104 determines, based on a detection result of the detector 14, whether the storage amount of ink capable of being supplied via the liquid supply path 11 from the liquid container TK is less than or equal to a predetermined lower limit. Specifically, for a detection result of each detector 14, the determiner 104 determines whether the storage amount of ink capable of being supplied via the liquid supply path 11 from the liquid container TK is less than or equal to the predetermined lower limit. The predetermined lower limits in the first ink to the fourth ink may differ or may be the same. The predetermined lower limit may be determined in advance, may be determined by a cartridge provider, or may be determined by an ink refill operator.).
Referring to Claim 4, the combination of Katsuki in view of Kuroyanagi teaches the printing apparatus according to claim
1 (See Katsuki, Figs. 1-2, Liquid Supply System 1).
Katsuki fails to explicitly teach
wherein on the printing apparatus, the consumable product for each of a plurality of colors of recording materials is mounted, and
wherein, based on a determination of whether the remaining amount of the recording material in the consumer product of each of the plurality of colors is less than the first predetermined amount, the notification is transmitted for the consumable product of a color with the remaining amount of the recording material being less than the first predetermined amount among the consumable products of the plurality of colors.
However, Kuroyanagi teaches
wherein on the printing apparatus, the consumable product for each of a plurality of colors of recording materials is mounted (See Kuroyanagi, Sect. [0057], Each of the cartridges 2 is provided with a memory 200 (see FIG. 4). The memories 200 store containment information and the like beforehand to depict the initial quantities of retaining the inks L of the respective colors retained at the time on their own shipment. Each of the memories 200 is connected electrically to the controller 100 on the installation of the cartridge 2.), and
wherein, based on a determination of whether the remaining amount of the recording material in the consumer product of each of the plurality of colors is less than the first predetermined amount, the notification is transmitted for the consumable product of a color with the remaining amount of the recording material being less than the first predetermined amount among the consumable products of the plurality of colors (See Kuroyanagi, Sect. [0103], if the detection signal from the remaining amount detector 9 does not change (S3: No), the controller 100 determines that the amount of the ink L in any sub tank 3 is less than the predetermined amount. In this case, the controller 100 outputs a caution signal corresponding to the color whose ink L is less than the predetermined amount (S6). In particular, the controller 100 displays a caution message on the display 130, for example. Then, the controller 100 carries out a “determination of the semipermeable membrane in the blocked state” (S7).).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Katsuki to incorporate the teachings of Kuroyanagi wherein on the printing apparatus, the consumable product for each of a plurality of colors of recording materials is mounted, and wherein, based on a determination of whether the remaining amount of the recording material in the consumer product of each of the plurality of colors is less than the first predetermined amount, the notification is transmitted for the consumable product of a color with the remaining amount of the recording material being less than the first predetermined amount among the consumable products of the plurality of colors. Doing so would provide a liquid discharging apparatus capable of preventing the head from failing to discharge the liquid, See Sect. [0006] as recognized by Kuroyanagi.
Referring to Claim 5, arguments analogous to claim 1 are applicable herein. The structural elements of “A printing apparatus” in claim 1 perform all of the operations of “A control method” in claim 5. Thus, “A control method” in claim 15 is rejected for reasons explicitly taught in the rejection of claim 1.
Cited Art
12. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Oguchi et al. (US PG. PUB. No. 2023/0058748 A1) discloses an image recording apparatus includes a controller configured to: (a) when a remaining amount of ink at the time of receiving a recording start instruction to start image recording on one recording medium is equal to or less than a predetermined amount and a calculated ink remaining amount is less than a required ink amount, not to start the image recording; and (b) when the remaining amount of ink at the time of receiving the recording start instruction is more than the predetermined amount, start the image recording according to the recording start instruction and, during the image recording according to the recording start instruction, when the remaining amount of ink is equal to or less than the predetermined amount and the calculated ink remaining amount is equal to or less than a threshold, interrupt the image recording.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DARRYL V DOTTIN whose telephone number is (571)270-5471. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Abderrahim Merouan can be reached on 571-270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DARRYL V DOTTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
/DARRYL V DOTTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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