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 .
This action is in response to Application and amended claims filed on 09/03/2024
Application is a 371 of PCT/KR2023/002873 03/02/2023
Application claims a FP date of 03/02/2022
Claim 1 is independent
Claims 1-20 are pending
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in the instant Application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/03/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98(a)(4). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they fail to show all the annotated elements clearly as described in the specification. Fig 3 needs to be replaced with a clear drawing that clearly identifies the elements in the figure. Elements 180, 140, 170 and 150 all appear to be jumbled up and incomprehensible. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 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, 13 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2024/0397205 A1 which has a Foreign Priority date of Sep 29, 2021) in view of Hayashi (U. S. Patent Number 9,568,743 B2).
Regarding Claim 1, Wang discloses a camera module (Wang’s invention is about an electronic device having a camera module) comprising:
a reinforcement plate (Fig 3 - reinforcing plate 222);
a circuit board (Fig 3- main circuit board 21, additional circuit board 221) disposed on the reinforcement plate (In ¶0089, Wang discloses that the reinforcing plate 222 may be bonded on the bottom of the additional circuit board 221) and including a cavity (In ¶0086, Wang discloses that a light transmitting hole 211 is provided at a center of the main circuit board 21);
a sensor (Fig 3 – image sensor 22) disposed in a region of an upper surface of the reinforcement plate that overlaps the cavity of the circuit board along an optical axis (Fig 3 clearly discloses that the image sensor 22 is disposed in the cavity of the circuit board 221 overlaps the cavity along the optical axis as disclosed in Fig 11);
a base (Fig 3- bearing table 231) disposed on the circuit board (Fig 3 discloses that the bearing table is above the additional circuit board 221); and
a filter unit (Fig 3 – light filter 23) disposed on the base (In ¶0125, Wang discloses that the light filter 23 is connected above the bearing table 231) and overlapping the sensor along the optical axis (Fig 3 and 11 discloses that the filter overlaps the sensor along the optical axis),
wherein the filter unit overlaps the metal frame along the optical axis (In ¶0125 Wang discloses that the bearing table is connected above the additional circuit board 221 and located in the light transmitting hole 211 of the main circuit board 21).
Wang discloses all the limitations of the independent claim but fails to clearly disclose wherein the base is a metal frame including a metal material.
Instead in a similar endeavor, Hyashi discloses wherein the base is a metal frame including a metal material (In Fig 7 and in Col 5, Hayashi teaches about the metal cover 47 and the filter 78. The metal cover 47 has been interpreted as “a base” which is disposed on the sensor substrate 72 on which the imaging device sensor 76 is mounted)
Wang and Hyashi are combinable because both are related to imaging devices.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the metal cover 47 as taught by Hyashi in the imaging module disclosed by Wang.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to “avoid collision” since the metal cover 47 is as a collision avoidance member that prevent collusion between inner peripheral side wall and lens barrel disclosed by Hyashi in Col 17.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Wang and Hyashi to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 13, Wang in view of Hyashi discloses wherein the base includes a nonmagnetic metallic material (Hyashi: In col 6, lines 10-20 teaches that the metal cover 47 is formed with nickel silver which is non-magnetic material).
Regarding Claim 17, Wang in view of Hyashi discloses wherein the sensor (Wang: Fig 3 – image sensor 22) is disposed in the cavity of the circuit board and overlaps the circuit board along a horizontal direction (Wang: Fig 3 clearly discloses that the image sensor 22 is disposed in the cavity of the circuit board 221 overlaps the cavity along the optical axis as disclosed in Fig 11 and overlaps the circuit board along a horizontal direction).
Regarding Claim 18, Wang in view of Hyashi discloses wherein the base (Hyashi: The metal cover 47 has been interpreted as “a base” ) is bonded to the circuit board by soldering (Wang: In ¶0011, Wang discloses that the top wall of the base and the circuit board are welded).
Regarding Claim 19, Wang in view of Hyashi discloses wherein the circuit board includes a first portion connected to the sensor through a connection member, and a second portion on which the base is disposed, and wherein the first portion of the circuit board and the second portion of the circuit board have a step structure (Wang: In ¶0085 discloses that the image sensor 22 may be connected to an additional circuit board 221 by using COP process and the additional circuit board 221 may be connected to the main circuit board 21 by using a laser welding process, so that the image sensor 22 may be electrically connected to the main circuit board 21; Fig 4 discloses the step structure.).
Regarding Claim 20, Wang in view of Hyashi discloses a body, and the camera module of claim 1 disposed in the body and configured to photograph an image of a subject (Wang: ¶0039 – camera module including a lens and prism; and in ¶0067, he discloses that the camera module is part of a mobile phone; and in ¶0084 he discloses photosensitive imaging), and a display unit configured to output the image photographed by the camera module (Wang: Fig 1 discloses the display screen of the mobile device), wherein the camera module comprises: a lens unit (Fig 2a – lens A) disposed on the filter unit (Wang: filter 23; ¶0088); and a lens driving device adapted to move the lens unit in at least one of an optical axis direction and a direction perpendicular to the optical axis direction (Hyashi: In Col 4 and throughout, Hyashi teaches about the lens holder driving apparatus 10 and a camera module 70; In the last paragraph of col 4, he teaches that the driving apparatus moves the lens to provide auto-focus and shake correction which has been described in throughout in his disclosure.).
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2024/0397205 A1 which has a Foreign Priority date of Sep 29, 2021) in view of Hayashi (U. S. Patent Number 9,568,743 B2) as applied to Claim 1 above and further in view of Kim et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2007/0241273 A1).
Regarding Claim 14, Wang in view of Hayashi fails to clearly disclose comprising: an adhesive member disposed between the circuit board and the base.
Instead in a similar endeavor, Kim discloses comprising: an adhesive member (Fig 5 – Epoxy 11) disposed between (Fig 5 teaches that the epoxy is between the PCB 10 and the holder 12) the circuit board (Fig 5 – PCB 10) and the base Holder 12 – that holds and supports the filter 14 is equivalent to the base as disclosed by Wang in view of Hayashi)
Wang, Hyashi and Kim are combinable because all are related to imaging devices.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use adhesive as taught by Kim in the imaging module disclosed by Wang in view of Hyashi.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to “bond” the holder and PCB as disclosed by Kim in ¶0022.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Wang, Hyashi and Kim to obtain the invention as specified in claim 14.
Regarding Claim 15, Wang in view of Hyashi and Kim discloses wherein the circuit board includes a ground pattern (Kim: Kim teaches about the patterns on PCB in ¶0016 and in Fig 4 where he teaches about the printed circuit board patterns 64p), and wherein the adhesive member is disposed on the ground pattern (Kim In ¶0017 and ¶0015, he further teaches about using conductive paste on the patterns 64p for connecting the PCB with the image sensor chip 62)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is 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.
Claims 3-12 and 16 are objected as they depend on Claim 2.
Reference Cited
The following prior art made of record but not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2022/0353396 A1) discloses a camera includes a lens barrel, a holder, a filter disposed in the holder, a circuit board having an aperture, a reinforcing member including a first region corresponding to the aperture and a second region in which the circuit board is disposed, and an image sensor disposed in the first region of the reinforcing member. The first region of the reinforcing member includes a protruding part protruding farther than the second region of the reinforcing member. The image sensor is disposed on the upper surface of the protruding part.
Conclusion
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/PADMA HALIYUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639 January 20, 2026