Ex Parte Morovic et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Aug 29, 2016

12605499 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 29, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/605,499 10/26/2009
22879 7590 08/31/2016
HP Inc.
3390 E. Harmony Road
Mail Stop 35
FORT COLLINS, CO 80528-9544
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
JanMorovic
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.
82259252 1945
EXAMINER
ZHU, RICHARD Z
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2675
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
08/31/2016 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):
ipa.mail@hp.com
barbl@hp.com
yvonne.bailey@hp.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte JAN MOROVIC, PETER MOROVIC,
JORDI ARNABAT BENEDICTO, and JORDI VILAR
Appeal2015-002589
Application 12/605,499 1
Technology Center 2600
Before ST. JOHN COURTENAY III, LINZY T. McCARTNEY, and
JOHN D. HAMANN, Administrative Patent Judges.
HAMANN, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appellants file this appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the
Examiner's Final Rejection of claims 11-18. We have jurisdiction under
35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse.
THE CLAIMED INVENTION
Appellants' claimed invention relates to setting up a color separation
table for specific print systems using Neugebauer Primary area coverages
("NPacs") corresponding to color values. Abstract. Claim 11 is illustrative
1 According to Appellants, the real parties in interest are Hewlett-Packard
Company and Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. App. Br. 3.
Appeal2015-002589
Application 12/605,499
of the subject matter of the appeal and is reproduced below.
11. A system comprising non-transitory media encoded with
code defining a color-separation pipeline to convert colors to
halftone patterns in a print system defining NPs (Neugebauer
Primaries), the NPs including included NPs and excluded NPs,
the pipeline including a color separation table associating colors
with base NPacs (Neugebauer Primary Area Coverages)
including single-NP (Neugebauer Primary) NPacs
corresponding to said included NPs and multi-NP NPacs, said
color separation table excluding said excluded NPs, at least one
of the base NPacs being a linear combination of NPs including
at least one excluded NP, the base NPacs being on of within a
convex hull in a color space, the excluded NPs not being on or
within the convex hull, the color-separation pipeline being to,
when executed by a processor, convert colors not represented in
the color-separation table as linear combinations of the base
NPacs.
REJECTION ON APPEAL
The Examiner rejected claims 11-18 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over the combination of Tin (US 2010/0085586 Al;
published Apr. 8, 2010) and Spaulding et al. (US 7,583,406 B2; issued Sept.
1, 2009) (hereinafter "Spaulding"), collectively referred to as "the
combination."
DISPOSITIVE ISSUE ON APPEAL
The dispositive issue for this appeal is whether the Examiner erred in
finding the combination teaches or suggests "a color separation table
associating colors with base NPacs (Neugebauer Primary Area Coverages),"
as recited in claim 11.
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Application 12/605,499
ANALYSIS
We find Appellants' arguments persuasive with respect to the
combination failing to teach or suggest the above dispositive, disputed
limitation.
Appellants argue the combination, and Tin in particular, fails to teach
or suggest a color separation table associating colors with base Neugebauer
Primary Area Coverages (NPacs) - Appellants focus on the lack of a
teaching or suggestion ofNPacs. App. Br. 14.
According to Appellants, a NPac is a vector that characterizes the
relative percentages of each Neugebauer primary ("NP")- a NP is one of
the possible combinations of the set of available inks (colorants) - in an
area coverage (e.g., a 5x5-pixel halftone pattern). Id. at 14--15. For
example, for a Cyan-Magenta-Yellow ("CMY") printer that can print at
most one drop of each colorant per pixel, a 5x5-pixel halftone pattern can
include 5 white (no colorant) pixels, 10 yellow pixels, and 10 pixels with
cyan plus magenta, which can be characterized by the following NPac:
(20% W, 0% C, 0% M, 40% Y, 40% CM, 0% CY, 0% MY, 0% CYM). Id.
at 15; see also Spec. i-fi-f 19-21 (explaining same).
Appellants argue Tin's teaching of an-dimensional look-up table
("LUT"), cited by the Examiner, fails to teach or suggest a NPac. App. Br.
15 (citing Tin i156). Appellants argue Tin instead teaches a "forward LUT
accepts dot areas 303 as inputs and outputs modified spectral reflectances
305." Id.; see also Reply Br. 8 (citing Tin i154) (arguing a dot area does not
specify plural coverages and does not specify relative coverages of the inks).
Appellants contend Tin's forward LUT instead is directed to transforming
color values in a device independent color space to colorant values of a
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Appeal2015-002589
Application 12/605,499
specific multi-ink printer, rather than associating colors with NPacs. Reply
Br. 6-7 (citing Tin i-fi-152, 57). Appellants also contend Tin's teaching of
color patches relates to "singling out the black ink and interpolating between
different K levels to determine an accurate model and does not discuss
NPacs," nor multicolor NPs. See Reply Br. 8 (citing Tin i-fi-160, 75); App.
Br. 16.
The Examiner finds the combination, and Tin in particular, teaches or
suggests the disputed limitation. See Ans. 18. Specifically, the Examiner
finds Tin teaches creating a forward spectral reflectance LUT populated with
spectral reflectances derived from Neugebauer Primaries. See Ans. 18, 6-7
(citing Tin i-fi-158, 60, 76, 108-110; Fig. 4). The Examiner next finds Tin
teaches that once this table is inverted, the spectral reflectances are mapped
to NPacs. See Ans. 6-8 (citing Tin i-fi-152, 75); see also Ans. 8 (noting,
without citation, that Appellants admit "color separation tables specify ink
vector data corresponding to color input values").
We find Appellants' arguments persuasive. We agree with Appellants
that the cited portions of Tin fail to teach or suggest NPacs (vectors
characterizing the relative percentages of each base Neugebauer primary),
including failing to teach or suggest multi-NP NPacs. See Tin i-fi-152, 57-58,
60, 76, 108-110; Fig. 4. For example, we disagree with the Examiner that
paragraphs 52 and 75 teach or suggest that in the inverted forward LUT, the
spectral reflectances are mapped to NPacs. Tin i-fi-152, 75. Rather, these
paragraphs relate to, inter alia, (i) transforming color values between color
spaces and (ii) the efficacy of an interpolation algorithm, including with
respect to the performance of black ink. See, e.g., Tin i-fi-152 ("The inverted
LUT 212 models a transformation from color values in a device independent
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Application 12/605,499
color space 211 to colorant values 213 of a multi-ink printer, such as printer
50."), 75. Additionally, we are not apprised of any admission by Appellants
that color separation tables necessarily specify ink vector data corresponding
to color input values.
Accordingly, we do not sustain the Examiner's§ 103 rejection of
claim 11, and claim 12 which depends therefrom. In addition, our reasoning
above also applies to claim 13 which requires a color separation table having
a proxy NPac (a linear combination ofNPs). Accordingly, we also do not
sustain the Examiner's§ 103 rejection of claim 13, and claims 14 and 15
which depend therefrom. Likewise, we do not sustain the Examiner's § 103
rejection of claims 16-18, which collectively are directed to computer-
program products implementing the methods of claims 13-15.
DECISION
We reverse the Examiner's§ 103 rejection of claims 11-18.
REVERSED
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