N O N - F I N A L A C T I O N
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/07/23 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Election / Restriction – Election without Traverse
Applicant’s reply filed on 11/17/25, elected Species I (claims 1-11 & 14-20) embodiment, which is without traverse.
Claims 12-13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected Species II & III embodiments, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Closest Prior Art
The prior art (cited on PTO-892) is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Among these, the following references are considered to be the closest, collectively disclosing the state of the art concerned with a camera aperture driving module which drive aperture blade(s) to different sized openings using a voice coil motor (VCM).
HONG (US 20200012170) – applied to 35 USC 103 rejection, see below.
JEONG (US 20200007721) – see FIG. 2-11, which has similar features to HONG’s disclosure only using an alternative VCM configuration of magnets and coils to drive the aperture blades to different sized openings.
NOTE: Examiner welcomes INTERVIEW(s) to discuss the instant application’s claimed invention as it corresponds to the specification embodiments, as well as, discussing the similarities/differences taught/not taught by prior art. In the interest of compact prosecution, Applicant’s arguments/amendments should not only address the cited closest art applied/relied on in the 35 USC 103 rejection (below), but also address the other cited closest art not applied/relied on.
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 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.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HONG (US 20200012170) in view of Official Notice -- hereafter, termed as shown “underlined”.
As per INDEPENDENT CLAIM 7, HONG teaches a camera module (Fig. 1-3: camera module 1000), comprising:
an aperture driving module (ADM) driven by a voice coil motor (VCM) (Fig. 2-3: Aperture driving module - see elements 110, 200, 300 and 500. This has a VCM magnet 520 and coil 521b configuration to drive first and second aperture blades 530 & 540 to different sized opening diameter holes 531/541 per Fig. 4 & Fig. 5A-5C and para [0091, 0095-96, 0105-107, 0132-144]), said ADM comprising:
a barrel configured to support a lens, an aperture blade capable of adjusting an amount of light received by the lens, and a driving unit attached to the barrel (Fig. 2-3: elements 110, 200, 300 and 500 comprise a barrel structure which supports lenses (para [0050]), aperture blades 530/540 and is attached with a driving unit made up of magnetic portions 520, driving magnet 521a and driving coils 521b per Fig. 4 & 5A-5C), said driving unit configured to drive the aperture blade such that an aperture blade opening has a first size when the aperture blade is in a first fixed position, and has a second size when the aperture blade is in a second fixed position (Fig. 5A-5C and para [0105-0107]: aperture blades driven to largest size opening 531a/541a in Fig. 5A and smallest size opening 531b/541b in Fig. 5B);
Regarding the limitation: “and a lens controller configured to control a current flowing through the VCM, and further configured to turn off the current flowing through the VCM when the aperture blade is in the first and second fixed positions”, HONG discloses that the size of the aperture opening in Fig. 5A-5C is changed by supplying on/off states of power (i.e. current) to the driving unit (see elements 520, 521a/521e, 521b) in Fig. 8-11 and para [0135-0144] which is considered to teach controlling a current flowing through the VCM, and further configured to turn off the current flowing through the VCM when the aperture blade is in the first and second fixed positions.
HONG’s taught control of power/current through the VCM does not appear to explicitly discuss that this is done by a lens controller, however, a controller such as a lens controller would be required and/or would be obvious to achieve this functionality of adjusting power/current to the VCM. Therefore, Official Notice (MPEP § 2144.03) is taken that both the concepts and advantages of using a lens controller is well known and expected in the art. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a lens controller for the MOTIVATED REASON of supplying power/driving signals to a VCM in the analogous art of a camera module configured with an aperture driving module.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 1-6 and 16-20 are allowed.
Claim(s) 8-11 and 14-15 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.
The closest/related prior art (cited/discussed in this Office Action), when taken alone or in reasonable combination, does not teach the entirety of Applicant’s claimed invention as recited in independent claims 1 and 16.
Claim(s) 2-6 are allowed for at least depending from allowable claim 1.
Claim(s) 17-20 are allowed for at least depending from allowable claim 16.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the EXAMINER should be directed to AKSHAY TREHAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-5252. The examiner can normally be reached between the hours of 10am – 6pm during the weekdays Monday – Friday.
Interviews with the examiner are available via telephone AND video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant may contact the examiner via telephone OR use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR), which can be found at: http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TWYLER HASKINS can be reached on (571) 272-7406. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/AKSHAY TREHAN/
Examiner, Art Unit 2639
/TWYLER L HASKINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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