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 .
Status
The filing on 12/30/2025 amended claim 9. Claims 1-10 are pending. Claim 9 is rejected on new ground/s of rejection/s necessitated by the amendment/s of claim 9. Claims 1-8 and 10 are allowed.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/30/2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 102
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Minefuji (US 20090116124 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Minefuji teaches a projection system (Fig. 1-4) for enlarging a projection image formed by an image formation device (OS) disposed in a reduction-side conjugate plane and projecting the enlarged image in an enlargement-side conjugate plane, the projection system comprising: a first optical system (20, 220) and a second optical system (30/31, 40/41, 230/231, 240/241) sequentially arranged from the reduction side toward the enlargement side, wherein the second optical system (30/31, 40/41, 230/231, 240/241) includes an optical element (30/31, 230/231) and a first lens (40/41, 240/241) sequentially arranged from the reduction side toward the enlargement side, the optical element (30/31, 230/231) having a concave reflection surface, the first lens (40/41, 240/241) having negative power ([0061], [0078]), an intermediate image (where rays from a point on OS converge between L9 and 31; Fig. 4 and 9) conjugate with the reduction-side conjugate plane and the enlargement-side conjugate plane is formed between the first optical system (20, 220) and the second optical system (30/31, 40/41, 230/231, 240/241; Fig. 4 and 9), and a first region and a second region overlap with each other, the first region being a region as a result of projection of a luminous flux passage region of a reduction-side lens surface of the first lens (40/41, 240/241) onto an optical axis, the second region being a region as a result of projection of a luminous flux passage region of the reflection surface onto the optical axis (Fig. 4 and 9; Table 1, Table 3), and the reduction-side lens surface of the first lens (40/41, 240/241) is on a side of the first lens (40/41, 240/241) facing toward the reflection surface of the optical element (30/31, 230/231; Fig. 4 and 9), and the reduction-side lens surface of the first lens (40/41, 240/241) is concave (Fig. 4 and 9).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 and 10 are allowed.
Regarding claim 1, the closest prior art references, US 20220113518 A1, US 11106122 B2, JP 2021004970 A, US 20190331999 A1, US 10025092 B1, US 20160116830 A1, US 20150346469 A1, and US 20090116124 A1, disclose “a projection system for enlarging a projection image formed by an image formation device disposed in a reduction-side conjugate plane and projecting the enlarged image in an enlargement-side conjugate plane, the projection system comprising: a first optical system and a second optical system sequentially arranged from the reduction side toward the enlargement side, wherein the first optical system includes a diaphragm, the second optical system includes an optical element having a concave reflection surface and a first lens having negative power, the optical element and the first lens sequentially arranged from the reduction side toward the enlargement side, an intermediate image conjugate with the reduction-side conjugate plane and the enlargement-side conjugate plane is formed between the first optical system and the second optical system.” The above prior art references do not teach, by themselves or in combination with one another, “the projection system satisfies Conditional Expressions (1) and (2) below,
3.5 ≤ (LL + MR)/imy × TR × (1/NA) ≤ 6.0 (1)
TR ≤ 0.2 (2)
where LL represents a largest radius of the first lens, MR represents a largest radius of the reflection surface, imy represents a first distance from an optical axis to a largest image height at the image formation device, TR represents a throw ratio that is a quotient of division of a projection distance by a second distance from the optical axis to a largest image height of the enlarged image, and NA represents a numerical aperture of the image formation device.” Furthermore, there is no teaching, suggestion or motivation in the prior art references to modify the references in such manner that results in the above claimed limitation/s; hence the invention as claimed by claim 1 is not obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
Claims 2-8 and 10 depend, directly or indirectly, on claim 1; hence they are also allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claim 9 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAO-LUAN Q LE whose telephone number is (571)270-5362. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday; 9:00AM-5:00PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Minh-Toan Ton can be reached on (571) 272 230303. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BAO-LUAN Q LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882