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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahiro (JP 2019-200357 A; cited in IDS filed 2/18/2025) in view of Watanabe et al. (JP 2021-081552 A; cited in IDS filed 7/18/2025).
Takahiro discloses (as in claim 1) a cleaning device 51 comprising: a moving mechanism (a take-up motor) 59 and (a take-up drum) 59 configured to move a moving body (cleaning body) 511, 512 along a cleaning target (transmissive member; paragraph [0028]) 42a-42d, the moving body 511, 512 including a cleaning portion 53a-53d that is in contact with the cleaning target 42a-42d (paragraph [0029]); a current detecting portion 552 configured to detect a drive current of a drive source 55 that supplies a driving force to the moving mechanism 55, 59 (paragraph [0072]); a movement detecting portion 552 or (a home position sensor) 1201 configured to detect the moving body 511, 512 at a predetermined specific position (paragraph [0089]); a drive processing portion (CPU) 501, (an optical scanning device control board) 550 configured to, upon detection of the moving body 511, 512 by the movement detecting portion 1201 after a start of a drive of the drive source 55, stop the drive source 55 (paragraphs [0049]-[0050]); a state determination processing portion 501, 550 configured to, when the movement detecting portion 1201 does not detect the moving body 511, 512 before a predetermined specific time passes since the start of the drive of the drive source 55, determine a drive state of the drive source 55 based on a detection result of the current detecting portion 552 (paragraphs [0078]-[0081]); and an abnormality determination processing portion (paragraph [0092] and Fig. 10); (as in claim 2) when the movement detecting portion 552 does not detect the moving body before the specific time passes since the start of the drive of the drive source 55, the drive processing portion 501, 550 stops the drive source 55 (paragraph [0078]); (as in claim 3) a notification processing portion configured to notify a result of abnormality determination by the abnormality determination processing portion (paragraphs [0083] and [0095]); (as in claim 4) the cleaning target 42a-42d is a light transmissive member provided on an irradiation path through which light emitted from an optical scan device 40 based on image data to be scanned on a photoconductor 100 is passes (paragraphs [0023]-[0028] and Figs. 1-2); (as in claim 5) the movement detecting portion 1201 is an optical sensor or a contact-type sensor (paragraph [0090]); and (as in claim 6) an image forming apparatus 1 comprising: the cleaning device 51; and an optical scan device 40 configured to scan light on a photoconductor 100 (paragraph [0020]), wherein the cleaning target 42a-42d is a light transmissive member provided on an irradiation path through which the light emitted from the optical scan device 40 is passes (paragraphs [0023]-[0029]).
Takahiro differs from the instant claimed invention in not disclosing (as in claim 1) the abnormality determination processing portion configured to determine that an abnormality has occurred in the movement detecting portion when the state determination processing portion determines that the drive source is being driven, and determine that an abnormality has occurred in the drive source when the state determination processing portion determines that the drive source is not driven.
Watanabe et al. discloses an image forming apparatus 2000 comprising: a drive source 118; a movement detecting portion (HP sensor) 242; an abnormality being determined if the movement detecting portion 242 does not detect a moving body within a predetermined time (paragraphs [0030] and [0069]; Fig. 13, step S402); and an electrical fault diagnosis being operated and the abnormality determination processing which determined if an abnormality has occurred in the movement detecting portion 242 or in the drive source 118 (paragraphs [0025], [0053], and [0073]-[0075]; Fig. 13).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to apply the abnormality determination processing portion as taught by Watanabe et al. to the abnormality determination processing portion of Takahiro to accurately identify the causes of an abnormality.
Other Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Uchida (US Pat. Pub. No. US 2017/0329275 A1) discloses a cleaning device comprising: a moving mechanism configured to move a moving body along a cleaning target; a current detecting portion; a movement detecting portion; a drive processing portion; and an abnormality determination processing portion.
Imai et al. (US Pat. Pub. No. US 2020/0174417 A1) discloses a cleaning device comprising: a moving mechanism configured to move a moving body along a cleaning target, the moving body including a cleaning portion that is in contact with the cleaning target.
Kawasaki et al. (US Pat. Pub. No. US 2024/0045354 A1) discloses a cleaning device comprising: a moving mechanism configured to move a moving body along a cleaning target; a drive source; and a control portion.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOPHIA S CHEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2133. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am - 5 pm.
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/SOPHIA S CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
Ssc
March 16, 2026