12234860 (P.T.A.B. Dec. 19, 2014)

Ex Parte Nagasawa et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardDec 19, 2014

12234860 (P.T.A.B. Dec. 19, 2014)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 12/234,860 09/22/2008 Keiichi Nagasawa 033.0021 4944 124281 7590 12/22/2014 James W. Judge Ooe Building, No. 508 8-1 Nishitemma 2-chome, Kita-ku Osaka-Shi, 530-0047 JAPAN EXAMINER KATCOFF, MATTHEW GORDON ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3725 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 12/22/2014 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________________ Ex parte KEIICHI NAGASAWA, KOUICHI KITTA, and HIDEKI ORII ____________________ Appeal 2012-011826 Application 12/234,860 Technology Center 3700 ____________________ Before: CHARLES N. GREENHUT, ANNETTE R. REIMERS, and LEE L. STEPINA, Administrative Patent Judges. GREENHUT, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF CASE Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from a rejection of claims 1– 6. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse. The claims are directed to a bookbinding unit. Claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A bookbinding unit for encasing in coversheets and forming into booklets inner-leaf sheets collated into bundles, the bookbinding unit comprising: Appeal 2012-011826 Application 12/234,860 2 an inner-leaf tray on which inner-leaf sheets are set into a bundle; a cover tray on which coversheets are set; a bookbinding process path for guiding sheet bundles from said inner-leaf tray to, in order, an adhesive application location and a cover-binding location; inner-leaf conveyance means for transferring sheet bundles from said inner-leaf tray and along said bookbinding process path; coversheet conveyance means for feeding coversheets from said cover tray and setting them into place in the cover- binding location; adhesive application means, disposed in the adhesive application location, for applying adhesive to a spine-portion endface of inner-leaf sheets; cover binding means, disposed in the cover-binding location, for binding inner-leaf sheets together with coversheets; and control means for controlling said inner-leaf conveyance means, said adhesive application means, and said cover binding means; wherein said control means has input means for receiving input as to whether the makeup of a bundle of inner-leaf sheets includes saddle-stitch folded sheets, or is simple sheets alone; and is configured to control variably, based on bundle- makeup information from said input means, at least one means among said inner-leaf conveyance means, said adhesive application means, and said cover binding means. REFERENCES The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on appeal is: Tsukui US 2007/0001362 A1 Jan. 4, 2007 Yokobori US 2007/0172279 A1 July 26, 2007 Appeal 2012-011826 Application 12/234,860 3 REJECTION1 Claims 1–6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Tsukui and Yokobori. Ans. 7. OPINION In rejecting claim 1, the sole independent claim involved in this appeal, the Examiner cites Figure 7 of Yokobori regarding the limitation directed to the “input means.” Ans. 8. The input screen of Figure 7 does contain an option for selecting “saddle stitching.” However, this appears to relate to the finishing of Yokobori’s sheet, and not the “makeup of the bundle” subsequently “formed into booklets” by the claimed bookbinding unit according to claim 1. The relationship Yokobori’s finishing input has to the recited “input means for receiving input as to whether the makeup of a bundle of inner-leaf sheets includes saddle-stitch folded sheets, or is simple sheets alone,” if any, is neither apparent nor articulated by the Examiner. See Claims Appx. (emphasis added); App. Br. 9. Thus, the Examiner has failed to establish that the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art in view of Tsukui and Yokobori. DECISION The Examiner’s rejection is reversed. REVERSED 1 The provisional double patenting rejections are not argued and not discussed herein. See Ex parte Moncla, 95 USPQ2d 1884 (BPAI 2010). Appeal 2012-011826 Application 12/234,860 4 mls