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 § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
3. Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 4, examiner is unsure if “a plurality of light sources" the same plurality of light sources claimed in claim 1 or are they different devices.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "a plurality of light sources" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Claim(s) 1, 2 & 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takayuki Kurihara (US 2017/0227882) in view of Haruhiko Omata (US 2005/0008379).
Takayuki Kurihara discloses the following claimed limitations:
* Re clm 1, an optical scanning apparatus/light scanning device 15/ (Abst., para 0018, figs 1-6);
* a light source/32/ having five or more light-emitting portions/32a-32d/ arrayed in a row (paras 0032, 0045, fig 4);
* a cylindrical lens/45/ that converges light beams/L1- L4/ emitted from the light-emitting portions respectively (para 0025, figs 2, 3, 6);
* a restricting portion/41, 44/ that restricts an optical path width of the light beams entering the cylindrical lens (paras 0033, 0035, figs 2,3,5);
* a polygon mirror/33/ having a deflecting surface that reflects the light beams having passed through the cylindrical lens/45/, the polygon mirror rotating about an axis to scan, with the light beams, a scanned surface of an image carrying member/25/ along a main scanning direction/X/ (paras 0028-0030, 0036-0037, figs 1-2);
* wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light sources that emit light beams respectively (para 0032), the restricting portion has a plurality of first apertures/41/ that restrict the optical path/the first openings restricts light at different positions in the Y direction in fig 3/ width of the light beams along a sub scanning direction/Y/ (para 0035-0036, figs 2-3),
* the plurality of first apertures are provided to correspond to the light sources respectively and respectively have first openings that penetrate along an optical axis direction to let the light beams pass therethrough, and centers of the first openings along the sub scanning direction are located displaced along the sub scanning direction (paras 0032-0030 0045, fig 3, 4)
* Re clm 2, wherein the centers of the first openings along the sub scanning direction are located displaced along the sub scanning direction/Y/ with respect to optical axes of the cylindrical lens/45/ (para 33, fig 3).
* Re clm 4, wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light sources, and the polygon mirror scans the scanned surface of the image carrying member corresponding to each of the light sources by reflecting the plurality of light beams emitted from the light sources (paras 0028-0030, 0036-0037, figs 2, 5).
* Re clm 5, wherein the restricting portion further includes a second aperture/light with regulating portion 44/ that restricts an optical path width of the light beams/L1-L4/ along the main scanning direction (para 0035, fig 2).
* Re clm 6, wherein the restricting portion includes: a plurality of the first apertures/41/ provided to correspond to the light sources respectively; and a second aperture/44/ provided at
one place to be shared among the light sources (paras 0033, 0035, fig 2).
* Re clm 7, an image forming apparatus/light scanning device 15/ (Abst., figs 1-5);
Takayuki Kurihara does not disclose the following claimed limitations:
* Re clm 1, a plurality of scanning lenses that image on the scanned surface of the image carrying member the light beams reflected from the polygon mirror,
* Re clm 7, an image forming apparatus;
* a developing device that forms a toner image resulting from making visible an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrying member by the optical scanning apparatus;
* an endless belt that moves along the developing device;
* an image sensor that senses an image density of a development pattern formed in an end part of the belt along the main scanning direction;
* a control portion that, based on a result of sensing of the development pattern by the image sensor, detects an image defect in the toner image formed on a recording medium.
Haruhiko Omata discloses the following claimed limitations:
* Re clm 1, a plurality of scanning lenses/fθ lenses or f theta lenses/ that image on the scanned surface of the image carrying member the light beams reflected from the polygon mirror/117/ (para 0028, figs 1 & 5).
* Re clm 7, an image forming apparatus (Abst., figs 1-5).
* a developing device/1a-1d/ that forms a toner image resulting from making visible an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrying member/3a-3d- by the optical scanning apparatus/polygon mirrors 117/ (paras 0028-0029, figs 1-5);
* an endless belt/intermediate transfer belt 130/ that moves along the developing device;
* an image sensor/95/ that senses an image density of a development pattern formed in an end part of the belt along the main scanning direction (paras 0062-0065, fig 5);
* a control portion/control means 100/ that, based on a result of sensing of the development pattern by the image sensor, detects an image defect in the toner image formed on a recording medium (paras 0054, 0059-0064, figs 1-5).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to utilize a plurality of scanning lenses that image on the scanned surface of the image carrying member the light beams reflected from the polygon mirror.; and an image forming apparatus; a developing device that forms a toner image resulting from making visible an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrying member by the optical scanning apparatus; an endless belt that moves along the developing device; an image sensor that senses an image density of a development pattern formed in an end part of the belt along the main scanning direction; and a control portion that, based on a result of sensing of the development pattern by the image sensor, detects an image defect in the toner image formed on a recording medium, taught by Haruhiko Omata into Takayuki Kurihara for the purpose of achieving an improved surface smoothness of the recording material and achieving a higher quality of printed images.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 8-10 are allowed.
Claim 3 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 indicating allowable subject matter of claim 3 is the inclusion of an optical scanning apparatus that includes wherein the scanning lenses are configured such that, among the light beams emitted from the light-emitting portions, a first focus of the light beam imaged at one end of the scanned surface along the sub scanning direction and a second focus of the light beam imaged at another end of the scanned surface along the sub scanning direction are located displaced along the optical axis direction, and in an upstream end part along the main scanning direction, the first focus is located at one side of the second focus along the optical axis direction and, in a downstream end part along the main scanning direction, the first focus is located at another side of the second focus along the optical axis direction. It is these limitations found in the claims, as they are 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.
The primary reason for allowance of claims 8-10 is the inclusion of a method steps of an optical scanning apparatus that includes a beam pitch adjusting step in which, the first aperture is moved along the sub scanning direction such that, of the light beams emitted from the light-emitting portions, the light beam imaged at one end of the scanned surface along the sub scanning direction and the light beam imaged at another end of the scanned surface along the sub scanning direction are moved along the sub scanning direction, and thereby intervals, along the subscanning direction, between the light beams imaged on the scanned surface are adjusted all along the main scanning direction, and wherein in the beam pitch adjusting step, among the light beams emitted from the light-emitting portions, movement directions along the sub scanning direction of the light beam imaged at the one end along the sub scanning direction and the light beam imaged at the other end along the sub scanning direction are reversed between in an upstream end part and in a downstream end part of the scanned surface along the main scanning direction. It is these steps found in the claim, as they are 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and prior art fails to explicitly teach all limitations and/or not combinable
to meet the claimed invention. Tada (US 2006/0209372) disclose A surface emitting laser light source is provided on a circuit board. Laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source scans a surface-to-be-scanned. A beam separator, which separates the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source by reflecting a portion of the laser light, is disposed on an optical path between the surface emitting laser light source and the surface-to-be-scanned. The laser light, which is separated by the beam separator, is incident on a light-receiving element which detects a light amount. Saisho et al. (US 2008/0068689) disclose an optical scanning device that guides beams emitted from a light source to an optical deflector by a first optical system, deflects the beams by the optical deflector, forms the deflected beams on a surface to be scanned as an optical spot by a second optical system, and optically scans the surface. Sawamoto (US 2016/0295059) disclose a housing of an optical scanning device having a first abutting portion and a second abutting portion. In the optical scanning device, an optical axis adjustment and a focal position adjustment in a main scanning direction and a sub scanning direction are conducted in a state where a part of a holder that holds a light source unit for emitting multi-beam light abuts on the first abutting portion and in a state where a part of a peripheral edge of an optical element that has both a collimator lens function and a cylindrical lens function abuts on the second abutting portion. A beam pitch of the multi-beam light is adjusted by rotating the holder around an optical axis in a state where the holder abuts on the first abutting portion.
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricardo Magallanes can be reached at 571-272-5960. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KRISTAL FEGGINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
Regarding claim 1, examiner is unsure how a first part of a linkage converts a rotary motion of a rotary drive device to a linear resulatant movement.
. Regarding claim 1, examiner is unsure how a second part of a linkage cause a angular resultant motion of the printhead.
Regarding claim 1, examiner is unsure how a monitoring device monitors a force in the second part of the linkage. How does a monitor device determines a force in the second part of the linkage?
Regarding claim 2, examiner is unsure how a monitoring device monitors a parameter
Prosecution Insights