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 .
DETAILED ACTION
1. The following Office action is in response to communications filed on 7/24/2024. Claims 1-8 are currently pending within this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 8/26/2024, 9/17/2025, and 5/27/2026 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Foreign Priority
3. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55 for JP 2018-137262 filed on 7/20/2018.
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.
4. Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Isaka (US PGPub 2011/0228163) [hereafter Isaka].
5. As to claim 1, Isaka discloses an interchangeable lens (100 as shown in Figure 1) that can be attached to and detached from a camera (camera body 200) that has an imaging unit (imaging device 202), the lens comprising: an optical system (110 with lenses and aperture 101-104) in which an exit pupil distance changes depending on a position on an image plane of the imaging unit (changes according to image height); and an output unit (comm unit 106 and data storage 107) that outputs first information (exit pupil distance of optical system at image height 0, correction amount of exit pupil distance according to image height, correction amount of exit pupil distance according to vignetting, image height to which correction amount should be applied) regarding the position on the image plane and the exit pupil distance to the camera (Paragraphs 0030-0036, 0039, 0042-0044, 0049-0052, 0055-0062, 0065-0071, 0078-0083, 0098-0101).
6. As to claim 2, Isaka discloses the output unit outputs the first information upon the first information being requested by the camera (Paragraphs 0049, 0078-0083).
7. As to claim 3, Isaka discloses the optical system has a variable focal length; and the interchangeable lens further comprises a storage unit that stores the first information with respect to each focal length of the optical system (as shown in Figure 10) (Paragraphs 0033, 0069-0071, 0078-0083).
8. As to claim 4, Isaka discloses a detection unit (lens controller 105) that detects the focal length, wherein the output unit outputs the first information upon a change of the focal length of the optical system (Paragraphs 0069-0071, 0078-0083).
9. As to claim 5, Isaka discloses the output unit outputs information on the focal length of the optical system and the first information (Paragraphs 0032, 0034, 0036, 0069-0071, 0078-0083).
10. As to claim 6, Isaka discloses the first information is (i) information indicating a relationship between the position on the image plane and the exit pupil distance or (ii) a coefficient of a formula for calculating the exit pupil distance (exit pupil distance of optical system at image height 0, correction amount of exit pupil distance according to image height, correction amount of exit pupil distance according to vignetting, image height to which correction amount should be applied) (Paragraphs 0056-0060).
16Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 103
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.
11. Claims 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Isaka (US PGPub 2011/0228163) [hereafter Isaka] in view of Inagaki (US PGPub 2020/0004109) [hereafter Inagaki].
12. As to claim 7, it is noted that Isaka fails to particularly disclose the output unit outputs second information regarding a shape of the exit pupil of the optical system.
On the other hand, Inagaki discloses an output unit (lens MPU 117) outputs second information regarding a shape of the exit pupil of the optical system (Paragraphs 0028, 0067-0073, 0076-0081, 0084-0085, 0100, 0105, 0128-0134).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to the output unit outputs second information regarding a shape of the exit pupil of the optical system as taught by Inagaki with the interchangeable lens of Isaka because both of the cited prior art references are directed towards imaging systems that control the operations of imaging devices according to properties of an exit pupil of an interchangeable lens unit and because each of the claimed limitations are fully disclosed within the combination of the cited prior art references and would yield predictable results of enabling highly accurate focus detection to be performed through estimating a true light flux passage region that varies according to the shape of the exit pupil at different image heights.
13. As to claim 8, Inagaki discloses the second information is information regarding the position on the image plane and the shape of the exit pupil distance (Paragraphs 0130-0134).
Conclusion
14. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL S OSINSKI whose telephone number is (571) 270-3949. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 6:00pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Oneal Mistry can be reached on (313) 446-4912. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)-273-8300.
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MO
/MICHAEL S OSINSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2674
7/24/2026
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