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 § 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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mizutani et al (U.S. Pub. 2017/0282566) in view of Komatsu et al (U.S. Pub. 2011/0242206) and Inoue (U.S. Pub. 2008/0218554)
Regarding claim 1, an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: a recording head (110) that includes an ink ejection surface (111) having an opening of a nozzle for ejecting ink onto a recording medium (Figure 7; Paragraph 0033)
A cap (67) that is attachable to and detachable from the ink ejection surface and caps the ink ejection surface (Paragraph 0058)
A cleaning liquid supply portion that supplies a cleaning liquid to a closed space between the ink ejection surface and the cap (Abstract; Paragraph 0085)
A control portion (40) that controls operations of the recording head, and the cleaning liquid supply portion (Figure 6; Paragraph 0060)
Wherein the control portion is capable of executing an immersion (soak) cleaning mode of performing cleaning of the ink ejection surface by immersing the ink ejection surface in the cleaning liquid stored in the closed space (Abstract; Paragraphs 0083-0085)
Komatsu discloses it is known in the art to use a heating portion to heat the cleaning liquid within a cap (maintenance liquid; Abstract; Paragraphs 0023, 0066)
Inoue discloses a temperature sensing portion that senses an ambient temperature; cleaning modes based on a lapse of time from an end of ink ejection (use frequency is low or unused for long period) and the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensing portion (apparatus is in low-temperature environment), the control portion predicts a solidified state of the ink on the ink ejection surface and sets a cleaning condition (soiling state is estimated and a mode will be determined based on the soiling state; Paragraphs 0128, 0161, 0165-0168)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Komatsu and Inoue into the device of Mizutani, for the purpose of using a suitable mode according to the conditions and improving the cleaning of the ink ejection surface
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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 2-4 is the inclusion of the limitation of regarding prediction on the solidified state, the control portion includes an immersion cleaning information table indicating a relationship of the lapse of time and the ambient temperature with a free damped oscillation waveform in rigid body pendulum type physical property testing; and based on the information table, the control portion sets the cleaning condition so that there occurs a prescribed change in period or logarithmic decrement of the free damped oscillation waveform. 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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/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 August 5, 2026
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