Ex Parte Hollands et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Sep 30, 2016

12289156 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 30, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/289, 156 10/21/2008
127226 7590 10/04/2016
Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch, LLP
P.O. Box 747
Falls Church, VA 22040-0747
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Peter J. Hollands
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
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
0142-0651PUS1 8687
EXAMINER
SIMMONS, JENNIFER E
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2854
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
10/04/2016 ELECTRONIC
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.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
mailroom@bskb.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE
THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte PETER J. HOLLANDS, 1
Rick Walraven, Eddy J. A. Van De Gaar, Frederik G. Heeman,
and Comelis P. M. Van Heij st
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
Technology Center 2800
Before MARK NAGUMO, WESLEY B. DERRICK, and
JEFFREY R. SNAY, Administrative Patent Judges.
NAGUMO, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Peter J. Hollands, Rick Walraven, Eddy J. A. Van De Gaar,
Frederik G. Heeman, and Comelis P. M. Van Heijst ("Hollands") timely
appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Final Rejection2 of claims 1, 4, 6,
8, 11, and 12, which are all of the pending claims. We have jurisdiction.
35 U.S.C. § 6. We reverse.
1 The real party in interest is identified as OCE-Technologies B.V. (Appeal
Brief, filed 8 July 2014 ("Br."), 1.)
2 Office action mailed 10 October 2013 ("Final Rejection"; cited as "FR").
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
A. Introduction 3
OPfNION
The subject matter on appeal relates to a printing system with heat
transfer between just-printed media and media about to be printed.
The '156 Specification explains that fusing an image of marking material
onto a print media is conducted under elevated temperature and pressure,
and that it is desirable that the fusing apparatus not be cooled too much by
the in-coming print media. (Spec. 1 [0003].) It is said to be a common
practice to condition the print media with a pre-heater apparatus, but that this
pre-conditioning consumes a significant amount of energy. (Id.)
Holland seeks patent protection for a more efficient heat exchange
unit and a printing system in which heat is transferred from the hot printed
media to the in-coming (room-temperature) print media via a flexible foil.
Figure 2, below, illustrates the geometry of the heat transfer, in which the
two sheets are transported in opposite directions. (Id. at 5 [0018].)
y
11
)
~~
~
{'"-----------~
1()
{Fig. 2 shows printed sheet 11, heat transfer foil 13, and print media 10}
3 Application 12/289,156, Heat exchange unit for a printing system, filed
21October2008 as a continuation of PCT/EP07/52003, filed 2 March 2007,
claiming the benefit of and application filed in the EPO on 21 April 2006.
We refer to the "' 156 Specification," which we cite as "Spec."
2
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
As illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 (not reproduced here), pressing device 354
presses hot printed sheet 11 against heat transfer foil 13 to ensure good heat
transfer to print media 10. (Id. at [0019].)
Claim 1 is representative of the dispositive issues and reads:
A heat exchange unit, comprising:
a heat exchange region;
a first print media transport path configured for
operatively transporting a first print medium
from a supply through the heat exchange region
to a print engine;
a second print media transport path configured for
operatively transporting a second print medium from the
print engine through the heat exchange region;
a stationary heat exchange member in the form of a
flexible foil having a first side facing said first print media
transport path and a second, opposite side facing said
second print media transport path, wherein, in operation,
the second print medium conveyed from the print
engine is at an elevated temperature with respect to the
first print medium conveyed from the supply and
wherein the first and second print medium are placed in
heat exchange communication in the heat exchange
region; and
a pressing device configured to apply pressure to the
second print medium in the second print media transport
path in the direction of the first print media transport path
such that the flexible foil deforms in order to follow the
form of the first and second print media.
(Claims App., Br. 18; some indentation, paragraphing, and emphasis added.)
4 Throughout this Opinion, for clarity, labels to elements are presented in
bold font, regardless of their presentation in the original document.
3
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
Remaining independent claim 11 is drawn to a printing system
comprising a heat exchange unit substantially as recited in claim 1.
The Examiner maintains the following ground of rejection5 :
Claims 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, and 12 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) in view of the combined teachings ofTurini, 6
Lu, 7 and Buchan. 8
B. Discussion
Findings of fact throughout this Opinion are supported by a
preponderance of the evidence of record.
The Examiner finds (FR 2-3) that Turini describes, in Figure 4,
shown below,
a printing device in which a single heat-exchanging device 12 transfers heat
from recording medium 1 emerging from fuser 2 which is transported
5 Examiner's Answer mailed 8 September 2014 ("Ans.").
6 Wolfgang Tluck and Gerhard Turini, Fixing station, DE 2811835 (1979)
(EPO machine-assisted translation). We follow the Examiner and Hollands
and refer to this reference as "Turini."
7 Xiangyang Lu and Hongfeng Wang, Apparatus for paperless transfer
printing and the process thereof, U.S. Patent Application Publication
2005/0139096 Al (2005).
8 William R. Buchan et al., Powder transport, fusing and imaging
apparatus, EP 0 399 794 A2 (1990).
4
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
parallel and opposite to recording medium 1 being transported to fuser 2. As
the Examiner finds, Turini discloses that heat transfer may be improved by
arranging a metal plate between the recording media. (FR 3, 11. 1-2, citing
Turini 2, 10th para.) The Examiner finds further that Turini does not
disclose the use of a metal foil as a heat transfer device.
The Examiner finds that Lu describes endless metallic foil belt 3 as a
heat exchange member, as shown in Lu, Figure 3, reproduced below.
9 8
12
~
lO 11 1.5
{Lu Fig. 3 shows endless metal foil belt 3}
The Examiner concludes that it would have been obvious to substitute the
metal foil belt 3 for the metal plates described by Turini, reasoning that "the
distinction between a metal foil and a metal plate is at best a matter of
degree or relative thickness." (Ans. 3, 11. 7-8.)
5
Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
The Examiner finds further that Turini does not teach a pressing
device. (FR 4, 11. 4--7.) The Examiner finds, however, that Buchan
describes such a device in knee rollers 7a and 6a on either side of heat
exchange region 30, illustrated in Figure 1, shown below.
/()~
The Examiner reasons that it would have been obvious to provide such knee
rollers to apply pressure to the hot print medium in Turini to improve heat
transfer through a metal foil to the in-coming print medium. (FR 5.)
Hollands urges that the endless metal foil belt described by Lu does
not transfer heat in a manner sufficiently similar to the metal plates
described by Turini to support the conclusion of obviousness. (Br. 6-8.)
In particular, Hollands argues (id. at 8, 11. 1--4, citing, inter alia, Lu [0002]
and [0011]) that, rather than transferring heat from one print media to
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Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
another, metal foil belt 3 transfers an image, placed there by a technique
such as gravure printing, to a textile medium (cloth) by the application of
heat and pressure. Moreover, Hollands argues, Lu's apparatus transfers heat
from a contactless radiant heat source to an object, not from one object to
another. (Id. at 11. 6-11.)
As for Buchan, Hollands urges that Buchan does not describe any
device that applies pressure to a second print medium in the direction of a
first print medium transport path. (Id. at 11, 11. 10-12.) Moreover, in
Hollands's view, although "both Buchan and Turini teach methods and
devices for exchanging heat between two endless belt portions" (id. at 11,
11. 22-23), neither teaches or suggests the use of a flexible foil as a heat
transfer medium between the two belt portions (id. at 11. 26-27).
The weight of the evidence supports Hollands on all points. The mere
recognition that a flexible metal foil such as that described by Lu performs a
heat transfer function does not, without more, indicate that an artisan would
have considered substituting a flexible foil disclosed in the form of an
endless moving belt for the stationary metal plate described as a heat-
transfer enhancer by Turini. In this regard, we note that Lu is concerned, in
part, with solving the problem in the prior art that metallic foils used for
such purposes are easy to wrinkle. (Lu 1 [0002].) The wrinkling problem is
said to be solved by attaching the foil to the cloth to be printed as they move
to the inlet of the heat transfer area, so they move together through the heat
transfer area, and they are separated at the outlet of the heat transfer area.
(Id. at [0011].) The Examiner has not come forward with persuasive
evidence indicating that the artisan would have considered the modifications
necessary to provide a mechanism that would enable a metal foil to perform
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Appeal2015-001800
Application 12/289,156
the heat transfer function required by the apparatus disclosed by Turini.
Put another way, the record indicates that the distinction between metal foil
described by Lu and the metal plate described by Turini is significantly more
than a mere matter of degree or thickness.
Similarly, the Examiner has not come forward with persuasive
evidence that Buchan describes a pressing device that applies the pressure
required to the second print medium in the second print medium path in the
direction of the first print medium transport path such that a flexible foil
between the two transport paths would deform to follow the form of the first
and second print media.
The only suggestions for these features in the present record are found
in Hollands' s Specification. But hindsight is not an appropriate tool to
establish obviousness.
Accordingly, we reverse the rejection for obviousness.
C. Order
It is ORDERED that the rejection of claims 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, and 12 is
reversed.
REVERSED
8