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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/11/26 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amended claims filed 2/11/26 have been considered as follows.
Objections of the claims:
The objections are withdrawn in view of the amended claims.
35 USC 102/103 Rejections of the claims:
Applicant’s arguments are moot in view of the new ground rejections.
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) 1,3,5-6,8-10,17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu (US 20220026682).
Regarding claim 1, Wu teaches (Table 9, Fig. 9) An optical imaging system comprising:
a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, and a fifth lens, sequentially arranged from an object side,
wherein the first lens has a positive refractive power,
wherein the second lens has a negative refractive power,
wherein the third lens has a refractive power,
wherein the fourth lens has a negative refractive power,
wherein the fifth lens has a positive refractive power, and
whereinf/(2×IMG HT)<3.0 (16.81/8.7=1.93), 7.0< f12/D2 < 17.0 (18.6/1.3), 0.7< BFL/(2 x IMG HT) <1.5 (7.8582/8.7=0.9), and 0.16<D2/|f2|<0.3 (1.3/7.57=0.17),
where f is an overall focal length of the first lens to the fifth lens, IMG HT is half of a diagonal length of an imaging plane, f12 is a synthetic focal length of the first lens and the second lens, BFL is a distance along the optical axis from an image-side surface of the fifth lens to the imaging plane, D2 is a distance along an optical axis from an image-side surface of the second lens to an object-side surface of the third lens distance, and f2 is a focal length of the second lens.
Wu does not explicitly teach 2.0<f/(2×IMG HT).
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having 2.0<f/(2×IMG HT) 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 having desired image size by selecting a smaller image size.
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 Wu by having 2.0<f/(2×IMG HT) for the purposes of having desired image size by selecting a smaller image size.
Regarding claim 3, Wu further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein
0.9<f12/f<2.5 (18.6/16.81),
where f12 is a synthetic focal length of the first lens and the second lens.
Regarding claim 5, Wu further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein0.6<|f1|/|f2|<1.0 (6.32/7.57),
where f1 is a focal length of the first lens.
Regarding claim 6, Wu further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein
0.8<TTL/f<1.2 (15.21/16.81),
where TTL is a distance along the optical axis from an object-side surface of the first lens to the imaging plane.
Regarding claim 8, Wu further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 6, wherein
at least one of 0.3<BFL/TTL<0.6 (7.8582/15.21) and 0.4<TD/TTL<0.7 (7.35/15.21),
where BFL is a distance along the optical axis from an image-side surface of the fifth lens to the imaging plane, and TD is a distance along the optical axis from an object-side surface of the first lens to the image-side surface of the fifth lens.
Regarding claim 9, Wu further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein
4.5<n2+n3+n4<5.0 (4.95),
where n2 is a refractive index of the second lens, n3 is a refractive index of the third lens, and n4 is a refractive index of the fourth lens.
Regarding claim 10, Wu further teaches (Table 9) The optical imaging system of claim 9, wherein
each of the second to the fourth lenses has a refractive index greater than a refractive index of the first lens and a refractive index of the fifth lens.
Regarding claim 17, Wu further teaches ([80], “CCD”) The optical imaging system of claim 1, further comprising an image sensor configured to convert light reflected from an object and refracted by the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, and the fifth lens, into an electrical signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 11 is/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 an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 11, the prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious all the limitations of claim 11 including “each of the second and fourth lenses has a refractive index of 1.64 or more”, along with the other claimed limitations of claim 11.
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.
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/WEN HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
wen.huang2@uspto.gov
(571)270-0234