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.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 6-12, 16, 24, 28 and 30 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Invention or Species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2/20/2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I and Species A encompassing Claims 1-5, 13-15, 17-23, 26-27 and 29 in the reply filed on 2/20/2026 is acknowledged.
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 (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 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.
Claims 1-5, 13-15, 17-23 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 20140313394 A1 to Kim et al.
Regarding Claim 1. Kim discloses a variable magnification optical system comprising a plurality of lens groups, the plurality of lens groups being six or more lens groups and comprising a first lens group having positive refractive power (See Table 1 and Fig. 1 lens group G1) and a rear group (Fig. 1 at least lens 210 to lens 410) disposed closer to an image side than the first lens group, at varying magnification the distances between the lens groups being varied (See Table 2 and Fig. 1), the first lens group consisting of two or fewer lenses, both the following conditional expressions being satisfied: 7.50<f1/D1<55.00 (Table 1 = 35.83692/3.4), 4.00<M1/D1<22.00 (From Table 1 and Table 2 18.65/3.4) where f1 is the focal length of the first lens group, D1 is the thickness of the first lens group on an optical axis, and M1 is the amount of movement of the first lens group at varying magnification from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state.
Regarding Claim 2. Kim further discloses the rear group comprises a first negative lens group having negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 210, Table 1), and the following conditional expression is satisfied: 2.50<f1/(−fN1)<7.00 (Table 1 = 35.83692/6.116) where fN1 is the focal length of the first negative lens group.
Regarding Claim 3. Kim further discloses the rear group comprises a first negative lens group having negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 210, Table 1), and a second negative lens group having negative refractive power and disposed closer to the image side than the first negative lens group, and the following expression is satisfied: 0.05<f1/(−fN2)<6.50 where fN2 is the focal length of the second negative lens group.
Regarding Claim 4. Kim further discloses the rear group comprises a first negative lens group having negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 210, Table 1), and a second negative lens group having negative refractive power and disposed closer to the image side than the first negative lens group (See Fig. 1 lens 320 and lens 330, Table 1), and the following expression is satisfied: 0.01<fN1/fN2<1.20 (Table 1 =6.116/11.09 ) where fN1 is the focal length of the first negative lens group, and fN2 is the focal length of the second negative lens group.
Regarding Claim 5. Kim further discloses the first negative lens group is a lens group disposed closest to an object side of lens groups having negative refractive power in the rear group (as shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1).
Regarding Claim 13. Kim further discloses the rear group comprises a negative focusing group having negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 210, Table 1) and configured to move along the optical axis at focusing (as shown in Fig. 1), and the following conditional expression is satisfied: 0.05<f1/(−fFN)<6.50 (Table 1 = 35.83692/6.116) where fFN is the focal length of the negative focusing group.
Regarding Claim 14. Kim further discloses the rear group comprises a negative focusing group having negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 210, Table 1) and configured to move along the optical axis at focusing (as shown in Fig. 1), and the following conditional expression is satisfied: −35.00<(−fFN)/fRNw<1.50 (Table 1 = 6.116/11.09) where fFN is the focal length of the negative focusing group, and fRNw is a combined focal length in the wide-angle end state of one or more lens groups disposed closer to the image side than the negative focusing group (See Fig. 1 lens 320 and lens 330, Table 1).
Regarding Claim 15. Kim further discloses a final lens group disposed closest to the image side of lens groups in the rear group has negative refractive power (See Fig. 1 lens 330 and lens 410, Table 1 and Table 2 at wide angle position), and the following conditional expression is satisfied: 0.50<f1/(−fR)<10.00 (Table 1=35.83692/14.343) where fR is the focal length of the final lens group.
Regarding Claim 29. Kim further discloses an optical apparatus comprising the variable magnification optical system according to claim 1 (See at least Fig. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 26-27 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDMOND C LAU whose telephone number is (571)272-5859. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8am-6pm EST.
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/EDMOND C LAU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871