Appeal No. 2003-1966 Page 6
Application 08/789,959
It also is clear from Moriyama’s Figure 1 that the ink containers are located
adjacent to a non-print zone portion of the ink-jet printer, considering the print zone to
be defined by the width of the paper feed mechanism (see P). With regard to the width
limitation, even though Moriyama does not show separate ink containers, Figure 1
shows that the width of each of the portions (6Y, 6M, 6C, 6Bk) of the composite
container is sized to be less than a width of the non-print zone minus a sum of the
widths of the other portions of the composite container, for the four portions fit within
the non-print zone. This also is the case in Okazaki, as can be seen in Figure 11,
wherein the four separate and removable ink containers are located in the non-print
zone of the printer (see 104), and each separate container has a width that is less than
the width of the non-print zone minus the widths of the other separate containers.
Thus, the width requirement is met by each of the four non-separable ink containers of
Moriyama as well as each of the separable ink containers of Okazaki.
It is our view that suggestion to modify the Moriyama apparatus in the manner
proposed by the examiner is explicitly present in Okazaki, which discloses using a
plurality of separately replaceable ink containers for the various colors used in an ink jet
printer and explains in column 1 that frequencies of use of particular ones of the four
colors vary, with black typically being used more quickly, which results in the black ink
container being changed more often than the others (lines 51-57). An object of the
Okazaki invention is to provide an ink-jet apparatus wherein the frequency of changing
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