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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “the four-step switch” must be shown or the feature canceled from claim 11. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of the 2nd embodiment illustrated in Figs 8-9 (spherical lens condensing light from laser diode array) in the reply filed on 11/06/25 is acknowledged. Applicant indicated that claims 1-11 read on the elected embodiment.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Claim 1 discloses a new limitation presented on 11/11/25: “a light condensing member comprising a spherical lens …, wherein an optical axis plane of the light condensing member is aligned with an optical axis plane of centermost ones of the plurality of laser light sources of each laser diode bar.”
There is no support in the specification for an optical axis plane of a spherical lens, or for it being aligned with the center plane of the centermost diodes of each laser diode bar, while using a spherical lens to condense the laser beams emitted from each laser diode in the laser array, as described in the elected second embodiment. Paragraph 0039 of the specification clearly discloses: “As illustrated in Figs. 9A and 9B, in the second embodiment, the optical axis 108a of the light condensing member 108 (spherical lens) is aligned with the optical axis of the light emitting portion 102d, which is located at the center of the laser diode bar 104b, which is the middle laser diode bar of the laser diode stack 804.” There is no disclosure of a spherical lens having an optical axis plane.
Furthermore, it is not physically possible for a spherical lens to have an optical axis plane, since the lens is circular and has radial symmetry around the center point of the lens. Only a cylindrical lens can have an optical axis plane. It is also not physically possible for the center of the spherical lens to be aligned with the centermost diode of each laser diode bar in the laser diode array, it can only be aligned with a single laser diode.
The remainder of the claims are rejected for their dependence on claim 1. For the purpose of examination, the limitations as presented have been searched and considered.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant’s attention is drawn to the references cited on form PTO-892 which lists other references with similar features as the invention. However, none of them anticipate all the features of the pending claims.
Contact Info
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M. A. GOLUB-MILLER whose telephone number is (571)272-8602. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 11-6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MinSun Harvey can be reached on (571) 272-1835. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M. A. Golub-Miller/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2828