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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/5/26 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amended claims filed 2/5/26 have been considered as follows.
35 USC 102/103 Rejections of the claims:
Applicant’s arguments are moot in view of the new ground rejections.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 9,12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yang (CN 113156619, as evidenced by the translation).
PNG
media_image1.png
530
356
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 9, Yang teaches (Fig. 1, Table 1) An imaging lens system, comprising:
a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens (L1-L8) disposed in order from an object side,
wherein the fourth lens and the sixth lens each have a concave image-side surface in a paraxial region, and the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expressions as below:
f-number<1.70 (1.59)
0.90<f/f1<1.10 (6.126/6.344)
1.0<|f/f8|<1.40 (6.126/4.9)
where f is a focal length of the imaging lens system, f1 is a focal length of the first lens, and f8 is a focal length of the eighth lens.
Regarding claim 12, Kao further teaches (Table 1) The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the third lens has positive refractive power.
Claim(s) 9,14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Xu (CN 112987258, as evidenced by the translation).
PNG
media_image2.png
686
710
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 9, Xu teaches (Fig. 5, Table 5) An imaging lens system, comprising:
a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens (L1-L8) disposed in order from an object side,
wherein the fourth lens and the sixth lens each have a concave image-side surface in a paraxial region, and the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expressions as below:
f-number<1.70 (1.59)
0.90<f/f1<1.10 (6.1/6.31)
1.0<|f/f8|<1.40 (6.1/4.66)
where f is a focal length of the imaging lens system, f1 is a focal length of the first lens, and f8 is a focal length of the eighth lens.
Regarding claim 14, Xu further teaches The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expression as below:
0.005<|f/f6|<0.10 (6.1/100)
where f6 is a focal length of the sixth lens.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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(s) 9-11,13,15,17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zou (CN 113900226, as evidenced by the translation).
PNG
media_image3.png
426
392
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 9, Zou teaches (Figs. 1-2, Table 1) An imaging lens system, comprising:
a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens (L1-L8) disposed in order from an object side,
wherein the fourth lens and the sixth lens each have a concave image-side surface in a paraxial region, and the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expressions as below:
f-number=1.70 (1.700)
0.90<f/f1 (6.82/6.19=1.102)
1.0<|f/f8|<1.40 (6.82/5.167)
where f is a focal length of the imaging lens system, f1 is a focal length of the first lens, and f8 is a focal length of the eighth lens.
Zou does not explicitly teach f-number<1.70 and f/f1<1.10.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having f-number<1.70 and f/f1<1.10 would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of improving production by allowing some manufacturing errors.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Zou by having f-number<1.70 and f1/f<1.10 for the purposes of improving production by allowing some manufacturing errors.
Regarding claim 10, Zou further teaches (Table 1) The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the first lens has a concave image-side surface in a paraxial region.
Regarding claim 11, Zou further teaches (Table 1) The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the second lens has a convex object-side surface in a paraxial region.
Regarding claim 13, Zou further teaches The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expression as below:
0.08<|f/f5|<0.30 (6.82/56.776)
where f5 is a focal length of the fifth lens.
Regarding claim 15, Zou further teaches The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expression as below:
0.40<|f/f7|<1.20 (6.82/6.659)
where f7 is a focal length of the seventh lens.
Regarding claim 17, the modified Zou teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 1, and further teaches The imaging lens system of claim 9, wherein the imaging lens system satisfies a conditional expression as below:
0.580<TTL/2ImgHT (8.247/12.4=0.665)
where TTL is a distance from an object-side surface of the first lens to an imaging plane, and 2ImgHT is a diagonal length of the imaging plane.
Zou does not explicitly teach TTL/2ImgHT<0.660.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having TTL/2ImgHT<0.660 would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of improving production by allowing some manufacturing errors.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the teaching of Zou by having TTL/2ImgHT<0.660 for the purposes of improving production by allowing some manufacturing errors.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0234. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9:00AM-4:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached on (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WEN HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
wen.huang2@uspto.gov
(571)270-0234