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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on June 15th, 2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed July 13th, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 9-10, 12-15, and 17-20 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.
Claims 1-3, 7, 10, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma (CN 109959979 A, as evidenced by the machine translation) in view of Yasuda (US 2017/0315270).
Regarding claim 1, Ma discloses a spectacle lens (Figs. 1-2, element 4, [0011], “the present invention provides glasses”) comprising:
a lens substrate (4, [0035], “lenses 4”); and
an inorganic layer (5, [0035], “oil-resistant layer 5 is a fluorine-plated film layer”),
the spectacle lens further comprising:
a metal-containing layer (6, [0035], “The antibacterial layer 6 is a transparent nano-silicone coating with a thickness of 20μm-30μm, which makes full use of the bactericidal effect of silver ions”),
wherein a metal that is contained in the metal-containing layer is one or more metals selected from the group consisting of silver and platinum (6, [0035], “The antibacterial layer 6 is a transparent nano-silicone coating with a thickness of 20μm-30μm, which makes full use of the bactericidal effect of silver ions”),
wherein a film thickness of the cured layer is 1 μm or more and 100 μm or less ([0035], “The antibacterial layer 6 is a transparent nano-silicone coating with a thickness of 20μm-30μm”), and
wherein a layer, in which a ratio of an inorganic substance is about 90 % to 100 % by mass with respect to a mass of the layer, is not present between the lens substrate and the metal- containing layer (as shown in Fig. 2, metal layer 6 is adjacent to substrate 4, therefore a layer having an inorganic substate is not present).
Ma does not specifically disclose the metal layer between the lens substrate and the inorganic layer, wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a cured layer obtained by curing a curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order, and the metal-containing layer is the cured layer.
However Yasuda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches the metal layer (Fig. 1, element 4) between the lens substrate (2) and the inorganic layer (5, [0237], “thermoplastic polymer, a thermosetting polymer”), wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), a cured layer obtained by curing a curable composition (element 4) and the inorganic layer in this order (element 5, [0073], “a dielectric layer 5, an ultra-low refractive index layer 4, and a substrate 2 are laminated in this order”), and the metal-containing layer is the cured layer ([0108], “the ultra-low refractive index layer 4 in which a plurality of guests (for example, flat metal particles) 42 are dispersed in the host medium (for example, a binder of the ultra-low refractive index layer) 41”, [0203], “the binder includes a polymer, and it is more preferable that the binder includes a transparent polymer. Examples of the polymer include … a polyacrylate resin, a polymethyl methacrylate resin”, as disclosed in [0108] and [0203], the binder is a curable resin).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma with the wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a cured layer obtained by curing a curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order, and the metal-containing layer is the cured layer as taught by Yasuda, for the purpose of improving the antireflection performance ([0140]).
Regarding claim 2, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Ma further discloses wherein the metal-containing layer contains at least a silver-containing component ([0035], “silver ions”).
Regarding claim 3, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer further contains a platinum-containing component.
However Yasuda, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the metal-containing layer (4) further contains a platinum-containing component ([0029], “an alloy including one or more metals selected from the group consisting of gold, silver, platinum, and aluminum”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda, further in view of Ma with the wherein the metal-containing layer further contains a platinum-containing component as taught by Yasuda, for the purpose of improving the antireflection ([0140]).
Regarding claim 7, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Regarding claim 10, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Regarding claim 13, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 3 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Claims 5-6, 9, 12, 14-15, and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma (CN 109959979 A, as evidenced by the machine translation) in view of Yasuda (US 2017/0315270), further in view of Yoneyama (JP 2006184849 A, as evidenced by the machine translation).
Regarding claim 5, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), a foundation layer (5), the cured layer (6) obtained by curing the curable composition ([0040], “wet coating”, a wet layer will be cured to form the final layer) and the inorganic layer in this order (7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda with the wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 6, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 5 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the number of the foundation layer (Fig. 1, element 5) is two or more (layer 5 comprises layers 11-15 ass shown in Fig. 1, with layer 13 being the metal layer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda, further Yoneyama with the wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 9, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 2 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), a foundation layer (5), the cured layer (6) obtained by curing the curable composition ([0040], “wet coating”, a wet layer will be cured to form the final layer) and the inorganic layer in this order (7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda with the wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 12, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 3 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate (Fig. 1, element 2), a foundation layer (5), the cured layer (6) obtained by curing the curable composition ([0040], “wet coating”, a wet layer will be cured to form the final layer) and the inorganic layer in this order (7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda with the wherein the spectacle lens has the lens substrate, a foundation layer, the cured layer obtained by curing the curable composition and the inorganic layer in this order as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 14, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 9 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the number of the foundation layer (Fig. 1, element 5) is two or more (layer 5 comprises layers 11-15 ass shown in Fig. 1, with layer 13 being the metal layer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda, further in view of Yoneyama with the wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 15, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 9 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more.
However Yoneyama, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches wherein the number of the foundation layer (Fig. 1, element 5) is two or more (layer 5 comprises layers 11-15 ass shown in Fig. 1, with layer 13 being the metal layer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda, further in view of Yoneyama with the wherein the number of the foundation layer is two or more as taught by Yoneyama, for the purpose of sufficiently reducing reflections ([0006]).
Regarding claim 17, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 12 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Regarding claim 18, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 14 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Regarding claim 19, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 15 rejection above and Ma further discloses spectacles comprising: the spectacle lenses ([0011], “the present invention provides glasses”).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma (CN 109959979 A, as evidenced by the machine translation) in view of Yasuda (US 2017/0315270), further in view of Park (KR20210127530A, as evidenced by the machine translation).
Regarding claim 20, modified Ma teaches as is set forth in claim 1 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the metal-containing layer is a layer containing a metal in the form of an oxide.
However Park, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a coated glass, teaches the metal-containing layer is a layer containing a metal in the form of an oxide ([0022], "in particular, the antibacterial inorganic material may be used alone with silver oxide (Ag₂O)").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the spectacle lens of Ma in view of Yasuda with the metal-containing layer is a layer containing a metal in the form of an oxide as taught by Park, for the purpose of improving the antibacterial power of the lens ([0014]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW Y LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-3526. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached at (571) 270 - 1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW Y LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2872 14 August 2026
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