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 .
Remark
This Office Action is in response to applicant’s preliminary amendment filed on October 18, 2024, which has been entered into the file.
By this amendment, the applicant has amended claims 4 and 5.
Claims 1-6 remain pending in this application.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US patent application publication by Ngo et al (US 2015/0299470 A1) in view of US patent issued to Hoshi (US 11,460,716).
Ngo et al teaches an optical member that is comprised of a base substrate (102, Figure 1) that may serve as the light transmissive member or hard coat layer and an anti-reflective stack (104) covering the base substrate. Ngo et al teaches that the anti-reflective stack is configured to have high refractive index films and low refractive index films ae alternately stacked, (please see paragraphs [0012] to [0014]). Ngo et al teaches that the high refractive index films contain Si3N4, (please see Table 1) and the low refractive index films contain SiO2. Ngo et al teaches that the total number films of the high refractive index films and the low refractive index films is an even number (total number is 6 as shown in Table 1). A ratio of thickness of a thick film to thickness of a thin film of two adjacent films for each of the high refractive index films and the low refractive index films, as shown in Table 1, ranges from 1.17 to 4.96 which is less than 6.
Ngo et al teaches that the average reflectance of the anti-reflective stack is less or equal to 0.8% for visible wavelength spectrum greater than 425 nm. The average reflectance greatly increases for wavelength less than 425 nm. Although this reference does not teach explicitly that the reflectance for the anti-reflective stack in the wavelength range of 300 to 400 nm is 40% or more, such modification would have been obvious to one skilled in the art since it is basic knowledge in the art that by designing and selecting the thickness and refractive indices of the high and low refractive index films, the reflectance of the anti-reflective stack may be designed. One skilled in the art would have been motivated to design the anti-reflective stack to have a low reflectance in the visible wavelength range and greater than 40% of reflectance for wavelength of light in the range of 300 to 400 nm (i.e. not in the visible wavelength range) for the benefit of allowing the anti-reflective stack to have desired reflectance characteristics for desired applications.
This reference also does not teach the optical member comprises a light-transmissive member and a hard coat layer covering the light-transmissive member and an antireflective layer covering the hard coat layer. Hoshi in the same field of endeavor teaches a lens structure that is comprises of a substrate (2, Figure 2) serves as the light transmissive layer, a hard coat layer (8) covering the light transmissive layer and an antireflective layer (10) covering the hard coat layer, (please see column 4, lines 54-60). It would then have been obvious to one skilled in the art to apply the teachings of Hoshi to make the anti-reflective stack of Ngo et al be utilized in a lens structure for covering a hard coat layer and a light transmissive layer of the lens structure.
With regard to claims 2 and 3, Ngo et al teaches that the total number of films of the high refractive index films and the low refractive index films is 6 which is less than 10, (please see Table 1).
With regard to claim 4, Ngo et al teaches that the film located farthest from the hard coat layer in the anti-reflective stack is one of the low refractive index films (106f), i.e. SiO2 film next to the protective layer (105).
Claim(s) 5 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ngo et al and Hoshi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Japanese patent issued to Inaba et al (Mexell Holdings LTD, JP 2021036284 A).
The optical member taught by Ngo et al in combination with the teachings of Hoshi as described in claim 1 above has met all the limitations of the claims.
With regard to claims 5 and 6, these references do not teach explicitly to include a plurality of lens wherein the optical member serves as one of the lenses and do not teach explicitly that wherein the at least one lens is arranged to be exposed from a lens barrel wherein remaining lens of the plurality of lenses is arranged in the lens barrel. Inaba et al in the same field of endeavor teaches a lens unit for a camera module that is comprised of a lens barrel (Figure 1) with a plurality of lenses (13, 14, 15 and 16) is attached to wherein at least one lens (13, Figure 1) is arranged to be exposed from the lens barrel and remaining lens of the plurality of lenses is arranged in the lens barrel, (14-16, Figure 1). Inaba et al teaches that the at least one lens (13) has an antireflective layer (30) deposited on the lens (13), with the antireflective layer comprises alternative arranged high refractive index film Si3N4 and low refractive index film SiO2, (please see Figure 2). It would then have been obvious to one skilled in the art to apply the teachings of Inaba et al to make the optical member with the anti-reflective stack to constitute as the exposed lens of the lens unit for the camera module for the benefit of expanding the utility of the optical member.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AUDREY Y CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-2309. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 9:00AM-4:30PM.
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AUDREY Y. CHANG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2872
/AUDREY Y CHANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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