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 .
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.
Claim 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, 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(s) 1 and 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyashita (JP 2019158710) in view of Tomono et al. (US 5377044).
Re claim 1: Miyashita teaches a reflection-type optical encoder scale (fig. 1, 3 and 4) comprising: a high reflection region (40) and a low reflection region (42) alternately placed on a substrate (10) (paragraphs 20 and 30), wherein the low reflection region (42) includes a low reflection portion (42 in the groove) including at least three stacked inorganic layers (layers 21/22/24/26/28), and a reflectance on the low reflection region (42) is 5% or less (paragraph 72), wherein the high reflection region (40) includes at least one stacked inorganic layer (30) (paragraph 32), and a reflectance on the high reflection region is 60% or more (paragraph 72) (see fig. 1, 3 and 4), and wherein a value of a ratio S/N represented by the following formula (3) is 6 or more, (3) the ratio S/N = the reflectance on the high reflection region/the reflectance on the low reflection region (paragraph 72), but does not specifically teach the substrate is a transparent substrate. Tomono teaches a reflection-type encoder scale comprising a transparent substrate (1) (col. 2, lines 46-54) with a reflection pattern thereon (fig. 1, 2 and 6). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to use a transparent substrate with the scale of Miyashita similar to Tomono in order to pass light through the substrate dependent on the desired design providing for a versatile design.
Re claim 2: Miyashita as modified by Tomono teaches the reflection-type optical encoder scale, wherein the value of the ratio S/N is 15 or more (Miyashita, paragraph 72).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JENNIFER D BENNETT whose telephone number is (571)270-3419. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-6PM EST M-F.
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/JENNIFER D BENNETT/Examiner, Art Unit 2878
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