CTNF 18/829,339 CTNF 89004 DETAILED ACTION 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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 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. Priority 02-26 AIA Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 9/10/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. 07-34-01 AIA Claim s 8 -11 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 claim 8, cited term of “include a BP lens unit which is arranged at a most object side among the three or more positive lens units and includes at least one BP negative lens” (line 3-5) is indefinite and lacks antecedent. Claim 8 depends on claim 1, however, nowhere in claim 1 and claim8 specifies “three or more positive lens units”. So, claimed positron of the BP lens unit is unclear. Claims 9-11 are rejected as containing the deficiencies of claim 8 through their dependency from claim 8. Therefore proper amendments are required in order to clarify the scopes of the claims and overcome the rejections. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-7 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Komatsu et al (US 20140198394) . Regarding Claim 1, Komatsu teaches a zoom lens (abstract; figs. 1-6) comprising in order from an object side to an image side, one or more negative lens units each having a negative refractive power (fig. 1, G2, G3), and a positive lens unit having a positive refractive power (fig. 1, G1/G4), (abstract, line 1-5, A zoom lens includes a positive first lens group fixed during zooming, a negative second lens moved to the image side upon zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, a negative third lens group for image plane correction during zooming, and a positive fourth lens group fixed during zooming), wherein the one or more negative lens units (fig. 1, G2, G3) include a BN lens unit (fig. 1, G2) including at least one BN negative lens (fig. 1, L24), wherein the following inequalities are satisfied, 1.60 < nd_BNn < 2.00 (¶[0092], Table 1, nd_BNn = 1.75520); 25.0 < νd_BNn < 55.0 (¶[0092], Table 1, νd_BNn = 27.51). But Komatsu does not specifically disclose that wherein 0.4958 < θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn < 0.5508; where nd_BNn represents a refractive index of the BN negative lens, vd_BNn represents an Abbe number of the BN negative lens, and θCt_BNn represents a partial dispersion ratio of the BN negative lens. However, Komatsu teaches in fig. 1 and ¶[0092], Table 1 that νd_BNn = 27.51 and θCt_BNn = 0.61033; hence θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn = 0.4956133, which is very close to the claiming range (--less than 0.0002 to low limit). Since the claimed ranges and the prior art ranges are close enough that one skilled in the art would have expected them to have the same properties, Titanium Metals Corp. of America v. Nabber, 778 F.2d 775, 227 USPQ 773 (Fed. Cir. 1985). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the zoom lens of Komatsu to have wherein 0.4958 < θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn < 0.5508, for a purpose to provide a zoom lens having less variation in the angle of view during focusing and high optical performance while being small and light and an imaging apparatus provided with the zoom lens (¶[0004], line 1-6). Regarding Claim 2, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the zoom lens includes five or less lens units (fig. 1, G1, G2, G3, G4). Regarding Claim 3, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the one or more negative lens units comprise one or two negative units each having a negative refractive power (fig. 1, G2, G3; abstract, line 1-5, A zoom lens includes a positive first lens group fixed during zooming, a negative second lens moved to the image side upon zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, a negative third lens group for image plane correction during zooming, and a positive fourth lens group fixed during zooming). Regarding Claim 4, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the BN lens unit is a lens unit having a largest negative refractive power among the one or more negative lens units (fig. 1, G2; ¶[0092], Table 1, focal length of G2 can be estimated as f3 = -63.41, focal length of G3 can be estimated as f3 = -147.68). Regarding Claim 5, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the BN lens unit includes two or more and four or less negative lenses (fig. 1, G2, L21, L22, L24). Regarding Claim 6, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the BN lens unit includes at least one positive lens that satisfies the following inequality, 20.0 < νd_BNp <40.0 where vd_BNp represents an Abbe number of the at least one positive lens (fig.1, G2, L23; ¶[0092], Table 1, νd_BNp = 25.46). Regarding Claim 7, Komatsu teaches the zoom lens according to claim 1, wherein the following inequality is satisfied, 0.5 < |f_BN / D_BN| < 3.0 where D_BN represents a distance from a lens surface at a most object side to a lens surface at a most image side in the BN lens unit, and f_BN represents a focal length of the BN lens unit. (fig. 1, G2; ¶[0092], Table 1, D_BN can be calculated as D_BN = 22.93; focal length of G2 can be estimated as f3 = -63.41, so |f_BN / D_BN| = 2.77). Regarding Claim 12, Komatsu teaches an image pickup apparatus (abstract; fig. 12) comprising: a zoom lens (figs. 1-6), including in order from an object side to an image side, one or more negative lens units each having a negative refractive power (fig. 1, G2, G3), and a positive lens unit having a positive refractive power (fig. 1, G1/G4), (abstract, line 1-5, A zoom lens includes a positive first lens group fixed during zooming, a negative second lens moved to the image side upon zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, a negative third lens group for image plane correction during zooming, and a positive fourth lens group fixed during zooming), and an image pickup element that receives an image formed by the zoom lens (fig. 12, 3- image sensor, 10-zoom lens); wherein the one or more negative lens units (fig. 1, G2, G3) include a BN lens unit (fig. 1, G2) including at least one BN negative lens (fig. 1, L24), wherein the following inequalities are satisfied, 1.60 < nd_BNn < 2.00 (¶[0092], Table 1, nd_BNn = 1.75520); 25.0 < νd_BNn < 55.0 (¶[0092], Table 1, νd_BNn = 27.51). But Komatsu does not specifically disclose that wherein 0.4958 < θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn < 0.5508; where nd_BNn represents a refractive index of the BN negative lens, vd_BNn represents an Abbe number of the BN negative lens, and θCt_BNn represents a partial dispersion ratio of the BN negative lens. However, Komatsu teaches in fig. 1 and ¶[0092], Table 1 that νd_BNn = 27.51 and θCt_BNn = 0.61033; hence θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn = 0.4956133, which is very close to the claiming range (--less than 0.0002 to low limit). Since the claimed ranges and the prior art ranges are close enough that one skilled in the art would have expected them to have the same properties, Titanium Metals Corp. of America v. Nabber, 778 F.2d 775, 227 USPQ 773 (Fed. Cir. 1985). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the zoom lens of Komatsu to have wherein 0.4958 < θCt_BNn-0.00417×νd_BNn < 0.5508, for a purpose to provide a zoom lens having less variation in the angle of view during focusing and high optical performance while being small and light and an imaging apparatus provided with the zoom lens (¶[0004], line 1-6). Allowable Subject Matter Claim 8 is rejected as having 112 issue, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims in case the 112 rejections is overcome by proper amendments. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The prior art taken singularly or in combination fails to anticipate or fairly suggest the limitations of the independent claims, in such a manner that a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102 or 103 would be proper. In regard to claim 8, the prior art taken either singly or in combination fails to anticipate or fairly suggest a zoom lens further comprise wherein 0.5408 < θCt_BPn -0.00528×νd_BPn < 0.5808 where vd_BPn represents an Abbe number of the BP negative lens, and θCt_BPn represents a partial dispersion ratio of the BP negative lens. Claims 9-11 would be allowable as they depend on claim 8. Examiner’s Note Regarding the references, the Examiner cites particular figures, paragraphs, columns and line numbers in the reference(s), as applied to the claims above. Although the particular citations are representative teachings and are applied to specific limitations within the claims, other passages, internally cited references, and figures may also apply. In preparing a response, it is respectfully requested that the Applicant fully consider the references, in their entirety, as potentially disclosing or teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as fully consider the context of the passage as taught by the reference(s) or as disclosed by the Examiner. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Jie Lei whose telephone number is (571) 272 7231. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon.-Thurs. 8:00 am to 5:30 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by the telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Thomas Pham can be reached on (571) 272 3689.The Fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is (571) 273 8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published application may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov . Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Services Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (In USA or Canada) or 571-272-1000. /JIE LEI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 2 Art Unit: 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 3 Art Unit: 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 4 Art Unit: 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 5 Art Unit: 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 6 Art Unit: 2872 Application/Control Number: 18/829,339 Page 7 Art Unit: 2872
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