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 .
Claims 1 – 17 are pending in this application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 02/14/2025 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Applicants have not provided an explanation of relevance of cited document(s) discussed below.
Heishi et al. (U.S PreGrant Publication No. 2013/0242359 A1) teaches a document conveying device that includes a document table on which a stack of document sheets is placed; a rotating shaft member detachably provided on a main body of the document conveying device; a feeding member configured to contact and feed a topmost sheet of the stack of document sheets, the feeding member being attached to the rotating shaft member via a driving force transmitting member; a separating unit configured to separate the topmost sheet from one or more sheets that are fed together with the topmost sheet, rotating members rotatably attached to the rotating shaft member; a holding member configured to hold the feeding member and the driving force transmitting member; and a rotating member position restricting unit configured to restrict a position of the rotating members other than the holding member to a given predetermined position with reference to a position of the holding member.
Kubo et al. (U.S PreGrant Publication No. 20130320611 A1) teaches a sheet conveying device such as a feed mechanism includes a pick-up roller and a cover member. The pick-up roller feeds, into an apparatus, a sheet such as a document on a placing table such as a document placing table on which the sheet is placed. The cover member such as a pick-up cover covers the pick-up roller. The cover member is supported at both ends thereof on a shaft of the pick-up roller or on shaft bearings that receive the shaft of the pick-up roller.
Utagawa et al. (U.S PreGrant Publication No. 20130315610 A1) teaches an ADF that includes: a sheet-feed cover unit; a switch unit to be switched on or off depending on whether the sheet-feed cover unit is open or closed and including a first terminal, to which a first voltage, by which a driving motor is driven, is input, and a second terminal connected to the driving motor; and an open/close-detection circuit unit that includes a first switch circuit and a second switch circuit. The first switch circuit is switched on or off based on a threshold voltage that is larger than a second voltage to be generated in the driving motor by a jammed-document removing motion and smaller than the first voltage. The open/close-detection circuit unit detects that the sheet-feed cover unit is closed when the second switch circuit is energized, but detects that the sheet-feed cover unit is open when the second switch circuit is de-energized.
Kyocera (JP 2020-112651 A) provides an image forming apparatus 100 comprising an imaging unit 2, a specification unit 211, and a determination unit 212. The imaging unit 2 picks up an image of a recording medium R to acquire a recording medium image G showing the recording medium R. The specification unit 211 specifies a type of the recording medium R based on the recording medium image G. The determination unit 212 determines an image forming condition according to a result of specification performed by the specification unit 211 and a type of a sheet P. The image forming condition includes a condition indicating the characteristics of the recording medium image G when the apparatus forms the recording medium image G on the sheet P.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1 and 11 - 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shibata (U.S PreGrant Publication No. 2020/0236238 A1, hereinafter 'Shibata').
With respect to claim 1, Shibata teaches a document processing apparatus (e.g., an image forming apparatus, ¶0024, Fig. 1) comprising: a document tray on which a document is placed (i.e., a document tray on which a document is placed, ¶0008, ¶0027); a document conveyor to convey the document from the document tray (i.e., a conveyance device to convey said document from said document tray, ¶0008, ¶0027); and circuitry (Fig. 3) configured to: acquire information of the document (e.g., detecting a size of the document, ¶0035); determine a conveyance amount to convey the document, based on a first classification of the document previously set (e.g., set a conveyance speed to convey the document, based on a predetermined thickness of the document set, ¶0106); estimate a second classification of the document based on the information of the document acquired (e.g., evaluate another thickness based on the size of said document, ¶0068 - ¶0069); and change the conveyance amount when the first classification is different from the second classification (e.g., if the other thickness is thicker or thinner that the predetermined thickness, then adjust (slow down) speed for the other thickness, ¶0107 - ¶0108, claims 6 - 7).
With respect to claim 11, Shibata teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sensor to detect a size of the document, wherein the circuitry is further configured to cause the sensor to detect the size of the document, and the information of the document include information of the size of the document (e.g., a document witch detection sensor to detect the size of the document and may be controlled by an image processing circuit 402, ¶0035 with ¶0052).
With respect to claim 12, Shibata teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a receiver, wherein the circuitry is further configured to cause the receiver to receive an input of a designation of a size of the document, and the information of the document include information of the size of the document (e.g., see details and Figures 5A/5B).
With respect to claim 13, Shibata teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveyance amount that is changed by the circuitry is a conveyance speed of the document or a contact amount of the document to the document conveyor (e.g. this corresponds to the document conveyance speed to be changed according to any detected sheet thickness, ¶0031, ¶0106 - ¶0107).
With respect to claim 14, Shibata teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the first classification and the second classification includes a thickness or a kind of the document (e.g. thickness vs predetermined thickness, ¶0068, ¶0106).
With respect to claim 15, Shibata teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document processing apparatus is attached to an image forming apparatus (e.g. design choice: It’s well-known in the art to have said image forming apparatus to includes an image reading apparatus, ¶0025 or ¶0029).
With respect to claim 16, this is a system claim corresponding to the apparatus claim 1. Therefore, this is rejected for the same reasons as the apparatus claim 1, wherein an external personal computer (PC) and said image forming apparatus constitute a system as shown in ¶0056 of Shibata.
With respect to claim 17, it's rejected for the similar reasons as those described in connection with claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 - 10 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.
With respect to claim 2, none of the cited references teaches the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image reader to read an image on the document when the document is conveyed by the document conveyor, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: use a trained model to output a matching degree between the first classification and the second classification based on the information of the document and the image read by the image reader; and change the conveyance amount when the trained model outputs the matching degree exceeding a threshold value.
Claims 3 – 10 are also objected because these are under claim 2.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Namiki et al. (U.S PG Publication No. 2024/0270526 A1)1
Suetani (U.S PG Publication No. 2020/0236234 A1)2
1This reference teaches an apparatus including a transport device capturing medium; receiving a type of said medium; an amount is determined to convey said medium, based on a first thickness of medium; evaluate/analyze another thickness based of the type of medium received; and if the other thickness is different, then adjust the amount but for the other thickness.
2This reference provides an image reading apparatus in which a setting screen is displayed upon detecting that a document is placed on the document tray. In a case where a document is placed on an automatic document conveyance device, if a paper jam occurs while using the automatic document conveyance device, a screen of a paper jam is preferentially displayed even when a setting of automatically displaying a selection screen of a sheet thickness is set at the time. This prevents a specific screen desired to be continuously displayed from being hidden upon detecting that a document is placed on a document tray.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN M GUILLERMETY whose telephone number is (571)270-3481. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM - 5:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Benny Q TIEU can be reached at 571-272-7490. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JUAN M GUILLERMETY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2682
Prosecution Insights