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
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shinkawa et al (U.S. Pub. 2005/0057596)
Regarding claims 1, 15, an ink jet recording apparatus comprising:
A head that includes a plurality of nozzles configured to eject ink onto a recording medium (Figure 1; Paragraphs 0132-0133)
A drive waveform generator that generates drive waveforms to drive the respective plurality of nozzles (Figure 36; Paragraphs 0264-0265)
A reverberation waveform receiver (16) that acquires reverberation waveforms generated in the respective plurality of nozzles to be measured in accordance with the drive waveforms (Figure 16; Abstract; Paragraph 0175)
A hardware process (computation means 17) that generates a characteristic distribution of the acquired reverberation waveforms (Figure 16; Paragraph 0175) and
Performs, based on the characteristic distribution, an ejection characteristic control process of controlling an ejection characteristic of the plurality of nozzles to be uniform (Figure 50; Paragraphs 0175, 0227, 0231-0232, 0248-0249, 0345-0351; ejection failure will be determined and a recovery process will be initiated, which will be a process to control an ejection characteristics of the plurality of nozzles to be uniform)
Regarding claim 2, wherein the characteristic distribution is an amplitude distribution of the reverberation waveforms (Figure 16; Abstract; Paragraph 0175ejection failure detecting means is provided with residual vibration detecting means)
Regarding claim 3, wherein the ejection characteristic includes at least one of an ejection speed of the plurality of nozzles and an ejected droplet amount of the plurality of nozzles (Paragraphs 0175, 0227; ejection failure is associated with ejected droplet amount [number of nozzles ejecting])
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-14 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.
The primary reason for the allowance of claims 4-14 is the inclusion of the limitation of wherein in the ejection characteristic control process, the hardware processor controls the amplitude distribution to fall within a predetermined range, thereby controlling the ejection characteristic of the plurality of nozzles to be uniform. It is this limitation found in each of the claims, as it is claimed in the combination, 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 JASON S UHLENHAKE whose telephone number is (571)272-5916. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas X. Rodriguez can be reached at (571) 431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 August 25, 2026
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