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 8/26/2025 was considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 8/26/2025 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 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by YAMAGUCHI (JP2005-070083A).
YAMAGUCHI teaches regarding claim 1, an image forming apparatus (figure 2) comprising: an image bearing member 130 configured to bear a toner image; a transfer member 119 configured to form a transfer portion which transfers the toner image from the image bearing member to a transfer material in contact with the image bearing member 130; a moving portion 120-121 and 132 configured to perform a moving operation in which the transfer member 119 is moved between a contact position where the transfer member contacts the image bearing member 130 and a separated position where the transfer member 119 is separated from the image bearing member; a driving portion 121 configured to drive the moving portion; an applying portion [0027; shown in figure 1)] configured to apply a voltage to the transfer member; a detecting portion configured to detect at least one of a voltage applied to the transfer member by the applying portion and a current flowing through the transfer member when the voltage is applied to the transfer member by the applying portion; and a discriminating means configured to reset the reference value in a case in which the detecting result of the detecting portion is not below the reference value while the moving operation of the moving portion is performed (figures 4-7; abstract; [0021, 0020-0021, 0036]).
Regarding claim 2, wherein in a case in which the detecting portion detects the current flowing through the transfer member 119, the discriminating means (contact/separation determination process) resets the reference value so as to be smaller than a maximum current value and be larger than a minimum current value, of values of current flowing through the transfer member detected by the detecting portion while performing the moving operation (abstract, [0020, 0036]; the currents A, B, and C each act as one of maximum and minimum for the environmental sensor readings which determines the current levels for the contact/separation determination process).
Regarding claim 8, the moving portion 120-121, 132 includes a cam member 121 which rotates, and wherein the discriminating means (failure detection threshold) acquires a plurality of the values of current flowing through the transfer member detected by the detecting portion during one full rotation of the cam member 121 and acquires the maximum current value and the minimum current value [0008, 0036].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 9-11 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. MATSUMURA et al. (US 2021/0278786 A1) teaches a method to determine contact between roller in an image forming device.
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.
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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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