DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant’s amendment dated 04/14/2026 has been received and entered. By the amendment, claims 1-15, 17-13 and newly added claims 34-35 are now pending in the application.
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 1-4, 7-15, 17 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al., US 2016/0274342 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Zhao et al. disclose a zoom lens (fig. 5) comprising:
. a first lens unit G1 having a positive refractive power, wherein the first lens unit G1 consists of a single lens. It should be noted that a single lens can be considered as only one lens or a bonding of a group of lens into one lens (e.g., bonded/cemented lens)
. a second lens unit G2 having a negative refractive power
. a third lens G3 unit having a positive refractive power
. a subsequent group G4 including three or more lens units L10-L12, arranged in this order from an object side toward an image side, with an interval between adjacent lens units
that changes in zooming (Zoom lens property)
. wherein in zooming from a wide angle end toward a telephoto end, the first lens
unit, the third lens unit, and all the lens units of the subsequent group move toward the
object side, and the second lens unit moves in a trajectory that is convex toward the image
side (fig. 5(a), 5(c))
. wherein f1/|f2| is about 3.49 and fr/|f2| is about 1.92 (see Numerical Example 3), where f1 is a focal length of the first lens unit, f2 is a focal length of the second lens unit, and fr is a combined focal length of the subsequent group at the wide angle end.
It is noted that the Zhao et al. condition of f1/|f2| is closed to the claimed range of 3.50 < f1/|f2| < 5.33, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the focal length of first and second lens units satisfied to the claimed condition, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Re claim 2, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 1.34 < f3/|f2| < 4.26 (see Numerical Example 3), where f3 is a focal length of the third lens unit.
Re claim 3, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 1.31 < f1/ft < 2.81 (see Numerical Example 3), where ft is a focal length of an entire system at the telephoto end.
Re claim 4, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 0.66 < / |f2|/fw < 1.41 , (see Numerical Example 3), where fw is a focal length of an entire system at the wide angle end.
Re claim 7, wherein the third lens unit includes a positive lens having an aspherical shape, and wherein the following inequality is satisfied 0.50 < fs/f3 < 1.85 (see Numerical Example 3), where fs is a focal length of the positive lens, and f3 is a focal length of the third
lens unit.
Re claim 8, wherein the subsequent group includes a focusing unit G5 configured to move in focusing (fig 5c, [0025]).
Re claim 9, wherein the focusing unit consists of a single lens (fig. 5).
Re claim 10, wherein the subsequent group includes at least one lens unit L15 positioned closer to the image side than the focusing unit is, and the at least one lens unit includes one or more negative lenses and one or more positive lenses (fig. 5).
Re claim 11, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 1.00 < |ff/f2| < 2.74 (see Numerical Example 3), where ff is a focal length of the focusing unit.
Re claim 12, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 0.75 < |ff|/fr < 1.81 (see Numerical Example 3) where ff is a focal length of the focusing unit.
Re claim 13, wherein a lens unit with the highest positive refractive power among the lens units L13 arranged in the subsequent group is positioned adjacent to the object side of the focusing unit L14 (G5)(fig. 5)
Re claim 14, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 3.50 < f1/fp2 < 7.19 (see Numerical Example 3), where fp2 is a focal length of a lens unit with the highest positive refractive power among the lens units arranged in the subsequent group.
Re claim 15, wherein the following inequality is satisfied 1.35 < f3/fp2 < 5.26 (see Numerical Example 3), where fp2 is a focal length of a lens unit with the highest positive refractive power among the lens units arranged in the subsequent group, and f3 is a focal length of the third lens unit.
Re claim 17, wherein the second lens unit consists of four lenses L5-L8.
Re claim 23, wherein an imaging apparatus further including an image sensor 101/102 configured to receive an image formed by the zoom lens (fig. 11).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 24-25 are allowed.
Claims 5-6 and 18-22 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
. Tanable, US 2021/0271064, disclose a bonded lens as a single lens ([0044]).
. Nakayama, US 5,847,882, disclose a single lens block, such as a single lens or bonded lens block (col.46, ln 37).
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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