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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/28/2024 was filed and considered by the examiner.
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 1-2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eguchi, US 2013/0100337 A1, in view of Applicant’s submitted prior art, Saito, JP 2019-66540.
Regarding claim 1, Eguchi discloses an optical system L0 (figs1A-6B), in order from an object side (left side) to an image side (IP, right side), comprising:
. a first lens unit L1 having positive refractive power including a first partial lens unit L1A, a second partial lens unit L1B, and a third partial lens unit L1C ([0030])
. a second lens unit L2 having negative refractive power
. a rear lens unit L3
. wherein a first air gap being formed between the first partial lens unit L1A and the second partial lens unit L1B, and a second air gap being formed between the second partial lens unit L1B and the third partial lens unit L1C, wherein the first air gap is maximum among air gaps on an optical axis OA in the first lens unit L1, and the second air gap is second maximum among the air gaps on the optical axis OA in the first lens unit L1 (figs 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A), wherein the second lens unit moves during focusing ([0010]), and wherein the following inequalities are satisfied:
1.0 ≤ f1A/f1 ≤ 2.0 (conditional expression 8, [0077]-[0078])
-0.6 ≤ f1A/f1B < 0 (from conditional expression 1-3, [0030])
where f1 is a focal length of the first lens unit, f1A is a focal length of the first partial lens unit, f1B is a focal length of the second partial lens unit.
Eguchi, however, does not disclose the conditional of 0.5 ≤ LD/f ≤ 1.00, wherein LD is a distance on the optical axis from a lens surface closest to an object in the optical system to an image plane, and f is a focal length of the optical system. Saito does disclose an optical system having a conditional of LD / f <1.000 (conditional 1, [0026]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the Eguchi’s optical system satisfied LD / f <1.000, as shown by Saito to obtain an optical system that is well corrected in aberrations (e.g., a chromatic aberration) and the overlapped the claimed range is at least obvious.
Re claim 2, wherein the following inequality is satisfied: 0.30 ≤ f1A/f ≤ 0.75 (Eguchi, [0078]-[0079]).
Re claim 4, the modification to Eguchi would result the optical system satisfied: -0.95 ≤ f2/f1 ≤ -0.40 where f2 is a focal length of the second lens unit (Saito, conditional 10).
Re claim 5, the modification to Eguchi would also result the optical system satisfied: 0.20 ≤ f1/f ≤ 0.50 (Saito, conditional 9).
Re claim 7, wherein the optical system is satisfied: 1.30 ≤ nd1CP ≤ 1.65 where nd1CP is a refractive index for d-line of a positive lens disposed closest to the object in the third partial lens unit (Eguchi, Numerical example 1, surface 8).
Re claim 8, wherein the optical system is satisfied: 65.00 ≤ νd1CP ≤ 90.00 where νd1CP is an Abbe number based on d-line of a positive lens disposed closest to the object in the third partial lens unit (Eguchi, Numerical example 1, surface 8).
Re claims 12-13, wherein the first partial lens unit L1A has positive refractive power, the second partial lens unit L1B has negative refractive power, and the third partial lens L1C unit has positive refractive power and wherein the second partial lens unit L1B consists of one negative lens and two positive lenses (Eguchi, fig 4A, [0030]).
Re claim 14, wherein the third partial lens unit L1C has an aspheric lens closest to the image plane (Eguchi, fig 6A).
Re claim 15, wherein the second lens unit L1B consists of a single negative lens (Eguchi, Abstract).
Re claim 16, wherein a lens surface closest to the image plane in the rear lens unit L3 is convex toward the image side (Eguchi, fig 3A).
Re claims 17 and 18, the modification to Eguchi would result the second lens unit L2 includes an aperture stop SP closest to the object and wherein a lens G4 adjacent to the aperture stop SP on the image side IP is a cemented lens of a positive lens and a negative lens (Saito, fig 1).
Re claim 19, wherein the rear lens unit L3 has positive or negative refractive power (Eguchi, [0026]).
Re claim 20, Eguchi further disclose an application of the optical system over an image pickup apparatus together with an image sensor (Eguchi, [0028]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 9, 10 and 11 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.
Chang et al, US 2022/0003960A1, disclose an optical system is satisfied the claimed conditional of 0.5 ≤ LD/f ≤ 1.00 ([0072]).
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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