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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I, Claims 1-12 in the reply filed on 7/21/26 is acknowledged. Accordingly, Claims 13-20 are withdrawn from consideration.
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.
Claims 1, 3, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al (US Publication No.: US 2023/0346502 A1, “Zheng”) in view of Lee (US Publication No.: US 2006/0072203 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Zheng discloses an optical structure for surgical microscopes (Paragraph 0003), comprising a turning unit and a binocular unit (Figure 5, turning unit 1/2/3, binocular unit 4/5/13/14/15/8/6; Paragraph 0024),
The turning unit and the binocular unit being sequentially arranged along an optical path direction (Paragraph 0024), wherein
The turning unit comprises a right-angle prism (Figure 1, right-angle prism 2; Paragraph 0024); and
The binocular unit comprises a prism/lens group, a first right-angle prism, a second right-angle prism, and an ocular, the prism/lens group, the first right-angle prism, the second right-angle prism and the ocular being sequentially arranged along the optical path direction, and the prism/lens group comprising a small objective lens (Figure 5, prism/lens group 13/14/15, first right-angle prims 8, second right-angle prism 5, ocular 6).
Zheng fails to disclose that the turning unit comprises a right-angle roof prism.
However, Lee discloses a similar optical structure where the turning unit comprises a right-angle roof prism (Lee, Paragraph 0048).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the turning unit as disclosed by Zheng to include a right-angle roof prism as disclosed by Lee. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of optimizing the invention to reduce the amount of prism and simplify the manufacturing process (Lee, Paragraph 0050).
Regarding Claim 3, Zheng in view of Lee discloses the optical structure for surgical microscopes according to claim 1, wherein the prism/lens group is an angle-adjustable prism/lens group (Zheng, Paragraph 0023).
Regarding Claim 7, Zheng in view of Lee discloses the optical structure for surgical microscopes according to claim 1, wherein the prism/lens group does not comprise a meniscus lens (Zheng, Figure 1 clearly discloses no meniscus lens; Paragraphs 0023-0026).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-6, 8-12 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.
-Tesar (US 2017/0020627 A1) discloses a surgical microscope comprising a binocular and turning prims (Tesar, Figure 1).
-Straehle (US 2003/0165012 A1) discloses a surgical microscope comprising a binocular unit and a turning prism (Straehle, Figure 1; Figure 7).
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/MARIAM QURESHI/Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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