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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-6,9,13-14 in the reply filed on 12/27/25 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 1 is/are objected to because of the following informalities:
Each concave/convex surface should be specified as “in a paraxial region”.
Appropriate correction is required. For the purpose of the examination of the above claim(s), the above suggested correction(s) will be used by the examiner to interpret the claim(s).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under at least one of 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (2) as being anticipated by Noda (US 20140368931, of record).
PNG
media_image1.png
526
664
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 1, Noda teaches (Fig. 2, Tables 3,9, -++-+-, Table 3: the radii of curvature Ri of surfaces for each lens define the refractive power,
Ri(object side) :Ri(image side)
>0:<0 biconvex, positive lens, +, L3;
<0:>0 biconcave lens, negative lens, -, L1,L4;
same signs: determined by the one having smaller absolute value, L2:+, L5:+, L6-)
An optical imaging system comprising:
a first lens having negative refractive power, a concave object-side surface;
a second lens having positive refractive power;
a third lens having positive refractive power;
a fourth lens having negative refractive power;
a fifth lens having positive refractive power, a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; and
a sixth lens having negative refractive power, a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface,
wherein the first to sixth lenses are sequentially arranged from an object side to an imaging plane, and
wherein the optical imaging system has a total of six lenses.
Claim(s) 1-2,4-6,13-14 is/are rejected under at least one of 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (2) as being anticipated by Zhao (US 20160223797, of record).
PNG
media_image2.png
464
422
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 1, Zhao teaches (Fig. 9, Tables 9,21, -++-+-, Table 9: the radii of curvature Ri of surfaces for each lens define the refractive power,
Ri(object side) :Ri(image side)
>0:<0 biconvex, positive lens, +, L3;
<0:>0 biconcave lens, negative lens, -, none;
same signs: determined by the one having smaller absolute value, L1:-, L2:+, L4:-, L5:+, L6-) An optical imaging system comprising:
a first lens having negative refractive power, a concave object-side surface;
a second lens having positive refractive power;
a third lens having positive refractive power;
a fourth lens having negative refractive power;
a fifth lens having positive refractive power, a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; and
a sixth lens having negative refractive power, a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface,
wherein the first to sixth lenses are sequentially arranged from an object side to an imaging plane, and
wherein the optical imaging system has a total of six lenses.
Regarding claim 2, Zhao further teaches (Table 21) The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein 0.5<f/f3<5.0 (1/1.4), where f3 represents a focal length of the third lens and f represents a total focal length of the optical imaging system.
Regarding claim 4, mutatis mutandis, Zhao teaches in Fig. 19&Table 19 all the limitations as stated in claim 1 rejection above, and further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein an angle of view of the optical imaging system is 100 degrees or more (105).
Regarding claim 5, Zhao further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein 0<TTL/FOV<0.1 (~3.9/90), where TTL represents a distance from an object-side surface of the first lens to an imaging plane of an image sensor and FOV represents the angle of view of the optical imaging system.
Regarding claim 6, Zhao further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein 1.60<n4<2.10 (1.651), where n4 represents a refractive index of the fourth lens.
Regarding claim 13, Zhao further teaches (Fig. 9) The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein one or both of the object-side surface and the image-side surface of the sixth lens is aspherical.
Regarding claim 14, Zhoa further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein an F-number of the optical imaging system is 2.45 or less (1.95).
Claim(s) 1,3 is/are rejected under at least one of 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (2) as being anticipated by Lee (US 20160223796, of record).
PNG
media_image3.png
438
384
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 1, Lee teaches (Fig. 1, Table 1, -++-+-, the radii of curvature Ri of surfaces for each lens define the refractive power,
Ri(object side) :Ri(image side)
>0:<0 biconvex, positive lens, +, L3;
<0:>0 biconcave lens, negative lens, -, L1,L4;
same signs: determined by the one having smaller absolute value, L2:+, L5:+, L6-)) An optical imaging system comprising:
a first lens having negative refractive power, a concave object-side surface;
a second lens having positive refractive power;
a third lens having positive refractive power;
a fourth lens having negative refractive power;
a fifth lens having positive refractive power, a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; and
a sixth lens having negative refractive power, a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface,
wherein the first to sixth lenses are sequentially arranged from an object side to an imaging plane, and
wherein the optical imaging system has a total of six lenses.
Regarding claim 3, Lee further teaches The optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein 20<v1−v2<60 (32.576), where v1 represents an Abbe number of the first lens and v2 represents an Abbe number of the second lens.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 9 is/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 following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 9, the prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious all the limitations of claim 9 including “0.2<|f1/f2|<0.4”, along with the other claimed limitations of claim 9.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0234. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9:00AM-4:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached on (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WEN HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
wen.huang2@uspto.gov
(571)270-0234