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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/26/2025 was considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 6/26/2025 are acceptable for examination by the examiner.
Title
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
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by SHIOKAWA et al. (US 2018/0224792 A1).
SHIOKAWA teaches regarding claim 1, an image forming apparatus (figure 2) comprising: an image forming portion 42 configured to form a toner image; a pair of registration rollers 53a including a first roller member 53a, and a second roller member 53a forming a first nip portion with the second roller member 53aabutting on the first roller member 53a, the pair of registration rollers 53a being configured to convey a sheet while the sheet is being nipped by the first nip portion, and correct skew feeding of the sheet due to abutment of a leading end in a conveyance direction of the sheet on the first nip portion [0055]; a separation mechanism [0056; rollers are separated] configured to switch the pair of registration rollers 53a between an abutment state in which the first nip portion is formed with the first roller member and the second roller member abutting on each other and a separated state in which the first nip portion is separated; a transfer portion 424 including a belt 421 configured to bear the toner image formed by the image forming portion 42, a transfer member 424 forming a second nip portion with the transfer member 424 abutting on an outer side of the belt 421, and a driving portion 423A [0045] configured to drive the transfer member to rotate, the transfer portion 424 being configured to transfer the toner image onto the sheet while the sheet is passing through the second nip portion after the correction of the skew feeding of the sheet by the pair of registration rollers [0055]; and a controller 100 configured to control the separation mechanism, wherein for conveyance of the sheet having a first basis weight as a basis weight to the second nip portion [0054], the pair of registration rollers 53a is in the separated state with the sheet at a position to which the sheet is conveyed by a predetermined distance after the leading end in the conveyance direction of the sheet reaches the second nip portion (shown in figures 4-6; [0056] states that the rollers are separated), and for conveyance of the sheet having, as the basis weight, a second basis weight larger than the first basis weight to the second nip portion [0054; longer sheets of the same material have more weight], the pair of registration rollers 53a is in the abutment state with the sheet at the position to which the sheet is conveyed by the predetermined distance after the leading end in the conveyance direction of the sheet reaches the second nip portion (figures 4-5, the abutment state remains until the sheet is de-skewed and enters the transfer nip as discussed in [0062-0071]).
Regarding claim 2, the conveyance of the sheet having the second basis weight as the basis weight to the second nip portion, when a rear end in the conveyance direction of the sheet passes through the pair of registration rollers, the controller is configured to control driving of the separation mechanism to switch the pair of registration rollers from the abutment state to the separated state (remains in abutment (figure 4-5; [0062-0067]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 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.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. OKUBO et al. (US 2017/0158446 A1) and KRUCINSKI et al. (US 7,959,150 B2) teaches controlling the velocity of registration rollers to de-skew the fed paper sheets inside an image forming device prior to the paper sheet beginning the transfer process.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANA GRAINGER whose telephone number is (571)272-2135. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 9-5.
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, Walter Lindsay can be reached on 571-272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/QUANA GRAINGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
QG
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