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 copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/25/25, 12/10/25, and 1/14/26 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-2, 13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Clark (US 5,531,429) in view of Moriyama et al. (US 7,281,707, applicant’s cited prior art).
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Clark discloses a sheet processing apparatus (fig. 5), comprising: a conveyance unit (56-58, col. 5, line 61, fig. 5) configured to convey a sheet to a loading board 66, (col. 5, lines 59-62, fig. 5); a bonding unit 44 (col. 6, lines 59-65, fig. 7) configured to execute bonding processing for bonding together a plurality of loaded sheets 10-15 (fig. 7) loaded on the loading board (col. 6, lines 24-38), with use of an adhesive image formed on the plurality of loaded sheets (col. 5, lines 62-64); and a control unit 54 configured to control the bonding processing executed by the bonding unit in order to create a bundle of sheets from a designated number of sheets designated by a job (col. 5, lines 59-65, fig. 8). Regarding claim 16, Clark further discloses an image forming apparatus 42 (fig. 5) that forms an image including the adhesive image on the sheet based on a job (col. 5, lines 59-64).
Clark does not specifically disclose that the control unit is further configured not to execute the bonding processing with respect to the plurality of loaded sheets in a case where a thickness of the plurality of loaded sheets exceeds a first threshold.
Moriyama discloses a sheet processing apparatus 100 (fig. 1) having a control unit CPU 511 to not execute the bonding processing with respect to the plurality of loaded sheets in a case where a thickness of the plurality of loaded sheets exceeds a first threshold (col. 12, line 21 – col. 13, line 42).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Clark’s invention to include the feature of not executing the bonding process in the case where the thickness of the plurality of loaded sheets exceeds the first threshold as taught by Moriyama for the purpose of avoiding sheet bundle poor quality (see col. 2, lines 62-67).
Regarding claim 2, Clark discloses wherein the control unit is further configured to, when the bonding processing is executed, cause the bonding unit to move from a predetermined first position at which the bonding unit is not in contact with the plurality of loaded sheets to a second position at which the bonding unit comes into contact with the plurality of loaded sheets (see fig. 7).
Regarding claim 13, Moriyama discloses wherein the first threshold is a predetermined value (see col. 13, lines 1-5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-12, 14-15, and 17-18 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 3-12, the prior art of record does not disclose or suggest the claimed “after completion of the first bonding processing, determine a thickness of the plurality of second loaded sheets before the one or more additional sheets are loaded on the plurality of first loaded sheets, and not to execute the second bonding processing in a case where the thickness of the plurality of second loaded sheets exceeds the first threshold” along with the remaining claim elements.
Regarding claims 14-15 and 17-18, the prior art of record does not disclose or suggest the claimed “wherein the control unit is further configured to calculate a second threshold by reducing the first threshold by an adjustment value” along with the remaining claim elements.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hoang Ngo whose telephone number is (571)272-2138. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 am - 4:00 pm.
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/HOANG X NGO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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