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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, the applicant claims TTL as “a system length of the zoom lens”. However, the applicant does not state in which state the zoom lens is in before determining TTL. In each of the applicant’s embodiments the TTL varies based on the zoom configuration (wide-angle or telephoto). Due to this, it is not clear if satisfaction of the TTL expressions is required in each focal state, either focal state or if any configuration is acceptable (e.g. setting each variable distance to 0).
For the purposes of this action the office the office will interpret the claim such that any configuration of the optical system can be used to measure TTL.
Claims 2, 11 has a similar issue with respect to Gall, where the air gaps vary depending on the lens configuration.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but for the 112 rejection above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/7/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive with respect to the 112 rejection. Applicant argues that a zoom lens has a fixed distance from the object-side surface of the first lens to the imaging plane. The office respectfully disagrees. For example, Ohtake et al. (PGPUB 20030002172) discloses a zoom lens wherein the front lens group moves with respect to the imaging plane (Fig. 1 and [0038]). Since it is clear that a zoom lens’ first lens group may have a variable distance to the imaging plane based on the zoom/telephoto configuration, the applicant should clarify by amendment what state TTL is measured or that the first group is fixed with respect to the imaging plane.
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 TRAVIS S FISSEL whose telephone number is (313)446-6573. The examiner can normally be reached on 9AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Stephone Allen can be reached on (571) 272-2434. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRAVIS S FISSEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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