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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 14-20 in the reply filed on 10/27/25 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no serious burden among different groups of invention. This is not found persuasive because,
The invention groups require a different field of search (e.g., searching different classes/subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search queries); and/or the prior art applicable to one invention group would not likely be applicable to another.
Further the question as to whether or not inventions overlap in scope is not whether the groups share some limitations. In fact, if such were the case, no restriction between groups with a linking or generic claim would ever be proper. Clearly, such an interpretation would not be consistent with restriction practice or double patenting practice as a whole. Rather, related inventions in the same statutory class are considered mutually exclusive, or not overlapping in scope, if a first invention would not infringe a second invention, and the second invention would not infringe the first invention, MPEP806.05.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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) 14-15,17,19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsu (US 20230034285, of record).
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Regarding claim 14, Hsu teaches (Fig. 11, Tables 5-6) An image capturing module comprising an aperture control unit, an imaging lens assembly and an image sensor, wherein the imaging lens assembly comprises a first lens element, the first lens element is closest to an object side among all lens elements of the imaging lens assembly, and the image capturing module has a first state and a second state;
wherein, when the image capturing module is at the first state (Fig. 11b), the imaging lens assembly has a first f-number and a first viewing angle, the first f-number is Fno1, the first viewing angle is FOV1, and an image generated by the image capturing module is within a first sensing range;
wherein, when the image capturing module is at the second state (Fig. 11a), the imaging lens assembly has a second f-number and a second viewing angle, the second f-number is Fno2, the second viewing angle is FOV2, and an image generated by the image capturing module is within a second sensing range;
wherein, the first sensing range (half HOV 27.9) is encompassed within the second sensing range (half HOV 45), the first sensing range is within an effective photosensitive area of the image sensor (Y2=3) at the first state, and the second sensing range is within an effective photosensitive area of the image sensor (Y1=5.8) at the second state;
wherein, a focal length of the imaging lens assembly is f, an entrance pupil diameter of the imaging lens assembly at the first state is EPD1, an entrance pupil diameter of the imaging lens assembly at the second state is EPD2, the first viewing angle is FOV1, the second viewing angle is FOV2, the first f-number is Fno1, half of a diagonal length of the first sensing range is ImgH1, half of a diagonal length of the second sensing range is ImgH2, and the following conditions are satisfied:
1.5<f/(EPD1-EPD2)<10. (Table 6: =1/(1/Fno1-1/Fno2)=2.7, Fno1=1.15, Fno2=1.99);
10.degrees<FOV2-FOV1<50.degrees (45.3-27.9);
Fno1<1.4 (1.15); and
1.2mm<ImgH2-ImgH1<5.mm (2.8).
Hsu does not explicitly teach 1.2<Fno1.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having 1.2<Fno1 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 numerical aperture (Hsu teaches a variable aperture ST, a slightly smaller ST than the maximum ST will increase Fno1 slightly to satisfy 1.2<Fno1).
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 Hsu by having 1.2<Fno1 for the purposes of desired numerical aperture.
Regarding claim 15, Hsu further teaches The image capturing module of claim 14, wherein the first f-number is Fno1, the second f-number is Fno2, and the following condition is satisfied:
0.3<Fno2-Fno1<1.2 (between 0.79 and 0.59, see claim 1 rejection above).
Regarding claim 17, Hsu further teaches The image capturing module of claim 14, wherein half of the diagonal length of the second sensing range is ImgH2, and the following condition is satisfied:
5.mm<ImgH2<10.mm (5.8).
Regarding claim 19, Hsu further teaches The image capturing module of claim 16, wherein the imaging lens assembly comprises seven or more lens elements and comprises, in order from the object side to the image side along the optical path, the first lens element, the second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element, a sixth lens element and a seventh lens element;
wherein, the focal length of the imaging lens assembly is f, a curvature radius of an image-side surface of the seventh lens element is R14, and the following condition is satisfied:
0<f/R14<3. (5.5/14.3).
Claim(s) 16,18,20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsu in view of Wang.
Regarding claim 16, the modified Hsu teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 14, and further teaches The image capturing module of claim 14, wherein the imaging lens assembly comprises, in order from the object side to an image side along an optical path, the first lens element and a second lens element, an axial distance between an aperture stop and an image surface at the first state is SL1, an axial distance between the aperture stop and the image surface at the second state is SL2, an axial distance between the first lens element and the second lens element is T12, a minimum value among Abbe numbers of all lens elements of the imaging lens assembly is Vmin, and the following conditions are satisfied:
; and 10.<Vmin<20. (18.4).
The modified Hsu does not teach 1.<(SL2-SL1)/T12<25.
However, in an analogous optics field of endeavor, Wang teaches 1.<(SL2-SL1)/T12 (Fig. 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have 1.<(SL2-SL1)/T12 as taught by Wang in the teaching of Modified Hsu for the purposes of having desired imaging effects.
Hsu in view of Wang does not explicitly teach (SL2-SL1)/T12<25.
However (SL2-SL1)/T12 is “a result-effective variable” because it confers the size of the numerical aperture. And it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have (SL2-SL1)/T12<25, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges of a result-effective variable involves only routine skill in the art, MPEP2144.05.
One would be motivated to have (SL2-SL1)/T12<25 for the purposes of having desired imaging effects.
Regarding claim 18, the modified Hsu teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 14, but does not teach The image capturing module of claim 14, wherein the imaging lens assembly comprises seven or more lens elements, a curvature radius of an object-side surface of a lens element closest to an image surface among all lens elements of the imaging lens assembly is RL1, a curvature radius of an image-side surface of the lens element closest to the image surface among all lens elements of the imaging lens assembly is RL2, and the following condition is satisfied:
0.55<(RL1+RL2)/(RL1-RL2)<2.8.
However, in an analogous optics field of endeavor, Wang teaches 0.55<(RL1+RL2)/(RL1-RL2)<2.8 (Table 2: 0.8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have 0.55<(RL1+RL2)/(RL1-RL2)<2.8 as taught by Wang in the teaching of the modified Hsu for the purposes of having desired imaging effects.
Regarding claim 20, Hsu in view of Wang teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 16, but does not explicitly teach The image capturing module of claim 16, wherein the imaging lens assembly comprises seven or more lens elements, an object-side surface of the second lens element is convex in a paraxial region thereof, an image-side surface of the second lens element is concave in a paraxial region thereof, there is a distance in a paraxial region between any two adjacent lens elements of the imaging lens assembly, and each of at least three lens elements of the imaging lens assembly has at least one inflection point.
However Wang further teaches (Fig. 5, Table 2) the imaging lens assembly comprises seven or more lens elements, an object-side surface of the second lens element is convex in a paraxial region thereof, an image-side surface of the second lens element is concave in a paraxial region thereof, there is a distance in a paraxial region between any two adjacent lens elements of the imaging lens assembly, and each of at least three lens elements of the imaging lens assembly has at least one inflection point (L6-L8).
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the further teaching of Wang and Hsu in view of Wang for the purposes of having desired imaging effects.
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