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 12/18/2025 has been received and entered. By the amendment, claims 1-20 are remaining pending in the application.
In view of the Applicant’s amendment 12/18/2025 and the submission IDS dated 01/14/2026, the rejection 09/24/2025 has been withdrawn and a new ground(s) of rejection is made as following:
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
. the conditional expressions of : -10 < f3/f/100 < 2, -5 < f4/f/100 < 1, -1 < f1/f3 < 3, -3 < f5/f/100 < 3, -50 < f6/f < 10 would not be exist since those expressions contain a value of zero and the ratio of "f3/f/100" and "f4/f/100" and “f1/f3” and “f5/f/100” and “f6/f” cannot have a value of zero.
Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “third lens has a convex object-side surface”, “fourth lens has a concave object-side surface and a concave image-side surface” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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, 7-11, 13-15 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Applicant’s submitted prior art, Xu et al., CN 113552694 A.
Claim 1 is anticipated by Xu et al. figure 7 and accompanying text which discloses an optical imaging system, comprising:33
. a first lens L1 having positive refractive power ([0177]), a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface
. a second lens L2 having negative refractive power ([0178]), a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface
. a third lens L3 having positive refractive power ([0179])
. a fourth lens L4 having negative refractive power ([0180])
. a fifth lens L5 having refractive power
. a sixth lens L6 having refractive power and a convex object-side surface
. a seventh lens L7 having negative refractive power, a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface
. wherein the first to seventh lenses are disposed in order from an object side of the optical imaging system toward an imaging plane IMG of the optical imaging system
. wherein the optical imaging system has a total of seven lenses, and wherein
0<f1/f< 1.5 (Table 10)
-5 < f2/f < -1 (Table 10)
-10< f3/f/100 <0 or 0 <f3/f/100< 2 (Table 10)
-5< f4/f/100 <0 or 0< f4/f/100 < 1 (Table 10)
-0.5 <f1/f2 < 0 (Table 10)
-1 <f1/f3 < 0 or 0 < f1/f3< 3 (Table 10)
700 < FOV x (IMG HT/f) (Table 11)
|f1/f4/n4|< 0.3 (Table 10)
are satisfied, where f is a total focal length of the optical imaging system, f1 is a focal length of the first lens, f2 is a focal length of the second lens, f3 is a focal length of the third lens, f4 is a focal length of the fourth lens, FOV is a field of view of the optical imaging system, IMG HT is half a diagonal length of the imaging plane, and n4 is a refractive index of the fourth lens.
Re claim 2, wherein 25 <v1-v2 < 45 and 25 <v1-v4 <45 is satisfied, where v1 is an Abbe number of the first lens, v2 is an Abbe number of the second lens, and v4 is an Abbe number of the fourth lens (Table 10).
Re claim 3, wherein v2+v4 <v1, and v2+v4 <v3 are satisfied, where v3 is an Abbe number of the third lens (Table 10).
Re claim 4, wherein |f1/f2/n2|< 0.3 is satisfied, where n2 is a refractive index of the second lens (Table 10).
Re claim 5, wherein -3 < f5/f/100 < 0 or 0 <f5/f/100 <3 is satisfied, where f5 is a focal length of the fifth lens (Table 10).
Re claim 7, wherein -5 < f7/f < 0 is satisfied, where f7 is a focal length of the seventh lens (Table 10).
Re claim 8, wherein D1/f < 0.1 is satisfied, where D1 is a distance on an optical axis between the image-side surface of the first lens and the object-side surface of the second lens (Table 10).
Re claim 9, wherein TTL/f < 1.3 and BFL/f < 0.3 are satisfied, where BFL is a distance on an optical axis from the image-side surface of the seventh lens to the imaging plane, and TTL is a distance on the optical axis from the object-side surface of the first lens to the imaging plane (Table 10).
Re claim 10, wherein 1.5 < f/EPD < 2.3 is satisfied, where EPD is an incident pupil diameter of the optical imaging system (Table 10).
Re claim 11, wherein 2 <CT1/ET1< 5 is satisfied, where CT1 is a thickness of the first lens on an optical axis, and ET1 is a thickness of the first lens at an end of an effective diameter (Table 10).
Re claim 13, wherein the first to seventh lenses are formed of a plastic material, and an object-side surface and an image-side surface of each of the first to seventh lenses are aspherical (fourth embodiment, [0176]).
Re claim 14, wherein the sixth lens has at least one inflection point formed on at least one of the object-side surface and an image-side surface (fig 7).
Re claim 15, wherein the seventh lens has at least one inflection point formed on at least one of the object-side surface and the image-side surface (fig 7).
Re claim 18, wherein the fifth lens has a convex image-side surface (fig. 7).
Re claim19, wherein the sixth lens has a concave image-side surface (fig. 7).
Re claim 20, wherein the fifth lens has positive refractive power, and the sixth lens has negative refractive power ([0181]-[0182]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 12 and 16-17 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
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 DUNG T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2297. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 - 5:00.
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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