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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on March 26th, 2026 has been entered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on March 26th, 2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The amendment submitted on February 27th, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 1-3, 5-8, 13-15, and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoneyama (JP 2006184849 A, as evidenced by the machine translation) in view of Wu (CN210534467U, as evidenced by the machine translation).
Regarding claim 1, Yoneyama discloses a spectacle lens ([0055], “the antireflection laminate of the present invention or the optical functional filter of the present invention is provided on an optical article such as window glass, eyeglasses, or goggles”) comprising:
a lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), an inorganic layer (layers 11-12), and a water-repellent layer in this order (7); and
further comprising a metal-containing layer (13) between the inorganic layer and the water-repellent layer (as shown in Fig. 1, 13 is between 12 and 7), wherein
a metal contained in the metal-containing layer is
silver ([0032], “an alloy containing silver, and a mixture containing silver are preferred”),
one or more metals selected from the group consisting of platinum, gold, palladium, mercury, cadmium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, and titanium ([0033], “metal elements to be contained in silver include gold”),
and wherein at least part of the metal contained in the metal-containing layer is in a form of a single metal or a metal alloy ([0032], “an alloy containing silver, and a mixture containing silver are preferred”).
Yoneyama does not specifically disclose wherein the water-repellent layer is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal- containing layer.
However Wu, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the water-repellent layer (Fig. 1, element 50) is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal-containing layer ([0040], “The antibacterial layer 70 is a nano-silver film layer”, [0041], “waterproof layer 50 is vacuum-deposited onto the seawater erosion resistant layer 42 and the antibacterial layer 70”, as shown in Fig. 1, 50 is directly layered on metal layer 70).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama with the wherein the water-repellent layer is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal- containing layer as taught by Wu, for the purpose of preventing adhesion of water and improve visual effects of the lens ([0041]).
Regarding claim 2, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the inorganic layer is a multilayer film of two or more inorganic layers ([0057], “10 atomic % of cerium in indium was deposited on the primer layer 4 by a sputtering method to form a high refractive index transparent thin-film layer 11 … Nichrome was deposited on the high-refractive-index transparent thin-film layer 11 by sputtering to form a protective layer 12”).
Regarding claim 3, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the water-repellent layer is a fluorine-based organic layer ([0043], “perfluoropolyether group-containing silane coupling agents”).
Regarding claim 5, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer is a metal-containing inorganic layer ([0032], “an alloy containing silver”, silver alloy is inorganic).
Regarding claim 6, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer (13) is a vapor-deposited film of a vapor deposition material, and the vapor deposition material is particles of the metal ([0034], “a vapor deposition method”).
Regarding claim 7, Y modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and oneyama further discloses spectacles comprising the spectacle lens ([0073], “The antireflection laminate of the present invention is useful as a filter to be provided in optical display devices such as … spectacles, and goggles”).
Regarding claim 8, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 2 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the water-repellent layer is a fluorine-based organic layer ([0043], “perfluoropolyether group-containing silane coupling agents”).
Regarding claim 13, Yoneyama discloses spectacles ([0073], “The antireflection laminate of the present invention is useful as a filter to be provided in optical display devices such as … spectacles, and goggles”) comprising:
a frame ([0073], “spectacles”, spectacles are defined as a pair of lenses set in a frame); and
a spectacle lens ([0073], “spectacles”, spectacles are defined as a pair of lenses set in a frame) comprising:
a lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), an inorganic layer (layers 11-12), and a water-repellent layer (7) in this order (as shown in Fig. 1, the layers are disposed in this order); and
further comprising a metal-containing layer (13) between the inorganic layer and the water-repellent layer (as shown in Fig. 1, 13 is between 12 and 7), wherein
a metal contained in the metal-containing layer is
silver ([0032], “an alloy containing silver, and a mixture containing silver are preferred”),
one or more metals selected from the group consisting of platinum, gold, palladium, mercury, cadmium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, and titanium ([0033], “metal elements to be contained in silver include gold”),
and wherein at least part of the metal contained in the metal-containing layer is in a form of a single metal or a metal alloy ([0032], “an alloy containing silver, and a mixture containing silver are preferred”).
Yoneyama does not specifically disclose wherein the water-repellent layer is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal- containing layer.
However Wu, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the water-repellent layer (Fig. 1, element 50) is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal-containing layer ([0040], “The antibacterial layer 70 is a nano-silver film layer”, [0041], “waterproof layer 50 is vacuum-deposited onto the seawater erosion resistant layer 42 and the antibacterial layer 70”, as shown in Fig. 1, 50 is directly layered on metal layer 70).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama with the wherein the water-repellent layer is a layer directly layered on a surface of the metal- containing layer as taught by Wu, for the purpose of preventing adhesion of water and improve visual effects of the lens ([0041]).
Regarding claim 14, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 13 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the inorganic layer is a multilayer film of two or more inorganic layers ([0057], “10 atomic % of cerium in indium was deposited on the primer layer 4 by a sputtering method to form a high refractive index transparent thin-film layer 11 … Nichrome was deposited on the high-refractive-index transparent thin-film layer 11 by sputtering to form a protective layer 12”).
Regarding claim 15, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 13 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the water-repellent layer is a fluorine-based organic layer ([0043], “perfluoropolyether group-containing silane coupling agents”).
Regarding claim 17, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 13 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer is a metal-containing inorganic layer ([0032], “an alloy containing silver”, silver alloy is inorganic).
Regarding claim 18, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 13 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer is a vapor-deposited film of a vapor deposition material, and the vapor deposition material is particles of the metal ([0034], “a vapor deposition method”).
Regarding claim 19, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 14 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the water-repellent layer is a fluorine-based organic layer ([0043], “perfluoropolyether group-containing silane coupling agents”).
Claims 4, 9-12, 16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoneyama (JP 2006184849 A, as evidenced by the machine translation) in view of Wu (CN210534467U, as evidenced by the machine translation), further in view of Umeda (US 2020/0209433).
Regarding claim 4, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less.
However Umeda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the metal-containing layer (Fig. 1, element 14, [0048], “a silver-containing metal layer 14 containing silver (Ag)”) has a film thickness of 5 nm or less ([0207], “film thickness of the silver film was 2 nm”, as shown in Table 3, the metal layer containing silver has a thickness of 2nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama in view of Wu with the wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less as taught by Umeda, for the purpose of forming an ultrathin silver film while suppressing crystal grain growth ([0085]).
Regarding claim 9, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 8 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less.
However Umeda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the metal-containing layer (Fig. 1, element 14, [0048], “a silver-containing metal layer 14 containing silver (Ag)”) has a film thickness of 5 nm or less ([0207], “film thickness of the silver film was 2 nm”, as shown in Table 3, the metal layer containing silver has a thickness of 2nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama in view of Wu with the wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less as taught by Umeda, for the purpose of forming an ultrathin silver film while suppressing crystal grain growth ([0085]).
Regarding claim 10, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 9 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer is a metal-containing inorganic layer ([0032], “an alloy containing silver”, silver alloy is inorganic).
Regarding claim 11, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 10 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer (13) is a vapor-deposited film of a vapor deposition material, and the vapor deposition material is particles of the metal ([0034], “a vapor deposition method”).
Regarding claim 12, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 11 rejection above and Yoneyama further discloses Spectacles comprising the spectacle lens ([0073], “The antireflection laminate of the present invention is useful as a filter to be provided in optical display devices such as … spectacles, and goggles”).
Regarding claim 16, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 13 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less.
However Umeda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the metal-containing layer (Fig. 1, element 14, [0048], “a silver-containing metal layer 14 containing silver (Ag)”) has a film thickness of 5 nm or less ([0207], “film thickness of the silver film was 2 nm”, as shown in Table 3, the metal layer containing silver has a thickness of 2nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama in view of Wu with the wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less as taught by Umeda, for the purpose of forming an ultrathin silver film while suppressing crystal grain growth ([0085]).
Regarding claim 20, modified Yoneyama teaches as is set forth in claim 19 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less.
However Umeda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a laminated film, teaches wherein the metal-containing layer (Fig. 1, element 14, [0048], “a silver-containing metal layer 14 containing silver (Ag)”) has a film thickness of 5 nm or less ([0207], “film thickness of the silver film was 2 nm”, as shown in Table 3, the metal layer containing silver has a thickness of 2nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Yoneyama in view of Wu with the wherein the metal-containing layer has a film thickness of 5 nm or less as taught by Umeda, for the purpose of forming an ultrathin silver film while suppressing crystal grain growth ([0085]).
Conclusion
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/MATTHEW Y LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2872 2 April 2026
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