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.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 11, 13-15 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1 & 2) as being anticipated by Shin et al. 2020/0393654.
Regarding claim 11 Shin discloses an optical imaging lens assembly (title e.g. examples 4-5, see figures 7 & 9), sequentially comprising from an object side to an image side along an optical axis (e.g. ∙– ): a first lens (e.g. x101); a second lens (e.g. x20) with a negative refractive power (see Table 13); a third lens (e.g. x30) with a positive refractive power (see Table 13), an image-side surface thereof is a convex surface (Tables 7 & 9 have S6 as negative); a fourth lens (e.g. x40) with a negative refractive power (see Table 13), an object-side surface thereof is a concave surface (Tables 7 & 9 have S7 as negative), and an image-side surface thereof is a concave surface (Tables 7 & 9 have S8 as positive); a fifth lens (e.g. x50); and a sixth lens (e.g. x60); and satisfies: TTL/ImgH≤1.35 (using the values in Table 13 TTL/ImgH=1.30); |R3/f|≤1.55 (using the values in Tables 7, 9 & 13 |R3/f|=1.23 & 1.28); and 6.5≤|f1/f|+|f2/f|+|f3/f|≤11.5 (using the values in Table 13 |f1/f|+|f2/f|+|f3/f|=9.35 & 9.21).
Regarding claim 13 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses satisfaction of |f3/R5|≤1.5 (using the values in Tables 7, 9 & 13 |f3/R5|=0.51 & 0.72).
Regarding claim 14 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses satisfaction of 0.5≤CT3/T34≤2.5 (using the values in Tables 7 & 9 CT3/T34=1.83 & 1.88).
Regarding claim 15 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses satisfaction of 1.0≤ΣCT/ΣAT≤2.5 (using the values in Tables 7 & 9 ΣCT/ΣAT=1.02 & 1.05).
Regarding claim 17 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses wherein SAG41 is an on-axis distance between an intersection point of the object-side surface of the fourth lens and the optical axis to an effective radius vertex of the object-side surface of the fourth lens, SAG31 is an on-axis distance between an intersection point of an object-side surface of the third lens and the optical axis to an effective radius vertex of the object-side surface of the third lens, and SAG41 and SAG31 satisfy 1.5≤SAG41/SAG31≤4.0 (inherent given the structure and function, see figures 7 & 9).
Regarding claim 18 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses wherein a center thickness CT3 of the third lens on the optical axis and an edge thickness ET3 of the third lens satisfy 1.5≤CT3/ET3≤2.5 (inherent given the structure and function, see figures 7 & 9).
Regarding claim 19 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses wherein SAG41 is an on-axis distance between an intersection point of the object-side surface of the fourth lens and the optical axis to an effective radius vertex of the object-side surface of the fourth lens, SAG42 is an on-axis distance between an intersection point of the image-side surface of the fourth lens and the optical axis to an effective radius vertex of the image-side surface of the fourth lens, and SAG41, SAG42 and a center thickness CT4 of the fourth lens on the optical axis satisfy 1.5≤|SAG41+SAG42|/CT4≤3.0 (inherent given the structure and function, see figures 7 & 9).
Regarding claim 20 Shin discloses the optical imaging lens assembly according to claim 11, as set forth above. Shin further discloses wherein an object-side surface of the sixth lens is a convex surface (Tables 7 & 9 have S11 as positive), and an image-side surface of the sixth lens is a concave surface (Tables 7 & 9 have S12 as positive).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 are allowed.
Claims 12 and 16 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: with respect to the allowable subject matter, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed combination of limitations to warrant a rejection under 35 USC 102 or 103.
Specifically, with respect to independent claim 1 (and therefore its dependent claims 2-10) none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed optical imaging lens assembly specifically including, as the distinguishing features in combination with the other limitations, in order a first lens, a second negative lens, a third lens with a convex an image-side, a fourth negative, biconcave lens, a fifth lens and a sixth lens; wherein the following conditions are satisfied: TTL/ImgH≤1.35 and 2.5≤f3/f≤4.0. For example, nearest art Shin examples 4 and 5 have f3/f= 6.24 & 6.15, respectively.
Specifically, with respect to claim 12 none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed optical imaging lens assembly specifically including, as the distinguishing features in combination with the other limitations, satisfaction of −6.0≤f2/f1≤−2.5. For example, nearest art Shin examples 4 and 5 have f2/f1=-2.43 & 2.41, respectively.
Specifically, with respect to claim 16 none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed optical imaging lens assembly specifically including, as the distinguishing features in combination with the other limitations, satisfaction of 4.0 mm≤ f x tan(Semi-FOV) ≤5.5 mm. For example, nearest art Shin examples 4 and 5 have f x tan(Semi-FOV)=5.9.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Son et al. US Patent Application Publication 2019/0154967; in regards to an optical imaging lens assembly with some similarities. For example, the second example has the required six lenses but since it has TTL/ImgH=1.447 it fails to meet all the limitations of the independent claims.
Chen et al. foreign patent document CN108519634A; in regards to an optical imaging lens assembly with some similarities, see figure 3, but since it has TTL/ImgH=1.56 it fails to meet all the limitations of the independent claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to George G King whose telephone number is (303)297-4273. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
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/George G. King/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872 August 1, 2024
1 The first digit in the number indicates the example number, i.e. 110 is the first lens in the first example, 210 is the first lens in the second example, etc. For brevity the first digit is replaced by an x to cover all examples referenced.