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 05/18/2026 amended claims 1, 5 and cancelled claim 2. Claims 1, 3-5 and 7-9 are pending and rejected on new grounds of rejections necessitated by the amendments of claim 1.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/18/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - AIA 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 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 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.
Claims 1, 3-5 and 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pang (CN 112505995 A) in view of Gou (US 20210240060 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Pang teaches a projection optical apparatus (000) comprising: an optical system (refractive portion of 200) that image light enters; a reflector (201) that reflects the image light that exits out of the optical system (refractive portion of 200); and an enclosure (100, 300, 500, 600) that houses the optical system (refractive portion of 200) and the reflector (201), which has a body/base having an light incident surface, i.e., a first surface, and a back surface, i.e,. a second surface, opposite from the first surface. The incident surface reflects incident light.
Pang does not explicitly teach a reflection layer provided at the first surface of the base, and a heat conductive layer provided at the second surface of the base, and the heat conductive layer has heat conductivity higher than heat conductivity of the base.
Guo teaches a reflector (7) including a base (72) having a first surface (opposite of 721) on which the image light is incident and a second surface (721) opposite from the first surface (opposite of 721), a reflection layer (71) provided at the first surface (opposite of 721) of the base (72), and a heat conductive layer (10) provided at the second surface (721) of the base (72), and the heat conductive layer (10) has heat conductivity higher than heat conductivity of the base (72; [0030], [0033]); and the surface roughness and the thickness of the heat conductive layer (10) being greater than surface roughness and thickness of the reflection layer (71), respectively ([0030], [0033]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the invention to combine Pang with Guo; because it allows producing a cost effective and stable mirror for high heat intensity operating environment.
The combination of Pang and Guo consequently results in an illuminance distribution formed by the image light at the reflection layer has a first region where the illuminance is locally higher than a predetermined value; and the heat conductive layer is provided at the second surface at least at a second region thereof, the second region being a region of the second surface that physically overlaps with an outer shape of the first region in a direction of a shortest thickness of the reflection layer and the base.
Regarding claim 3, Pang further teaches the enclosure (100, 300, 500, 600) has a hermetically sealed structure (see highlighted portions of the supplied translation of Pang) that seals a housing space that houses the optical system (refractive portion of 200) and the reflector (201).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Pang and Guo consequently results in the base (72 of Guo) is made of a plastic material ([0030] of Guo).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Pang and Guo consequently results in wherein the reflection layer (71, e.g., ReflecTech reflective film of SkyFuel Company; [0030] of Guo) and the heat conductive layer (10 of Guo) are each made of a metal material ([0033] of Guo).
Regarding claim 7, Pang further teaches the reflection layer (71) has a concave shape (Fig. 3-7).
Regarding claim 8, Pang further teaches the image light that exits via a reduction-side conjugate plane enters the optical system (refractive portion of 200), and the reflector (201) reflects and projects the image light into an enlargement-side conjugate plane (Fig. 9; see highlighted portions of the supplied translation of Pang).
Regarding claim 9, Pang further teaches a projector comprising: a light source apparatus that outputs light; a light modulator that modulates the light from the light source apparatus; and the projection optical apparatus (000) according to claim 1 that projects modulated image light from the light modulator (Fig. 9; see highlighted portions of the supplied translation of Pang).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered but are moot in in view of new ground/s of rejection necessitated by the amendment/s of claim 1.
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
