DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
1. Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121:
I. Claims 1-6 and 9-12 are drawn electrochromic element, classified in G02C7/101.
II. Claims 7-8 are drawn to mold processing for electrochromic element, classified in G02B 5/08.
The inventions are independent or distinct, each from the other because: molding process using die.
Restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper because all the inventions listed in this action are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and there would be a serious search and/or examination burden if restriction were not required because one or more of the following reasons apply:
Applicant is advised that the reply to this requirement to be complete must include (i) an election of an invention to be examined even though the requirement may be traversed (37 CFR 1.143) and (ii) identification of the claims encompassing the elected invention.
The election of an invention may be made with or without traverse. To reserve a right to petition, the election must be made with traverse. If the reply does not distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election shall be treated as an election without traverse. Traversal must be presented at the time of election in order to be considered timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are added after the election, applicant must indicate which of these claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancelation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Note: claims 7 and 8 non-elected.
Priority
2. Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a) — (d), which papers have been placed of record in the file. Oath/Declaration
Oath/Declaration
3. Oath and declaration filed on 10/29/2024 is accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The prior art documents submitted by application in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 7/9/2025 and 6/3/2026 and 12/2/2024 and 12/2/2024 have all been considered and made of record ( note the attached copy of form PTO – 1449).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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) 1,3-6 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation).
Regarding claim 1, JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co, Ltd) electrochromic element (20) in which a lens substrate (9) and an electrochromic film (10) (electro chromic film) are laminated together (paragraph 0021,0116,0119 and paragraph 0141) ,
2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) dis closes all of the claimed limitations except wherein an absolute value of a difference in reflection power in 30% or more of spaces between local regions adjacent to each other among individual local regions obtained by splitting a 40 mm x 40 mm range at a center of a surface into 5 mm x 5 mm regions is 0.05 D or more and 0.5 D or less, and a surface of the electrochromic film has an undulation.
JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein an absolute value of a difference in reflection power in 30% or more of spaces between local regions adjacent to each other among individual local regions obtained by splitting a 40 mm x 40 mm range at a center of a surface into 5 mm x 5 mm regions is 0.05 D or more and 0.5 D or less, and a surface of the electrochromic film has an undulation (paragraph 0027, indicates a precision within + 0.09 diopters is required for the power of prescription EC spectacles lens JLS standard. That is required that the transmittance of a prescription EC spectacles lens according fall within a range of 0.18 D over entire lens.
Accordingly , a person skilled in the art , in view in view of the above mentioned requirement, could easily have conceived of setting the precision of the reflectance of the surface of the electrochromic element 10 to less than 0.18 D in the invention discloses in document 1. In this case, it would have been obvious that absolute value of the different in reflectance 30% , or 50% or more of adjacent local regions among the individual of the difference obtained by divided the 40 mm square range at the center of the surface into 5 mm squares is not greater than 0.5 D . Furthermore, according to (paragraph 0067).
Regarding claim 3, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein the absolute value of the difference in reflection power in 50% or more of the spaces between the local regions adjacent to each other among the individual local regions is 0.05 D or more and 0.5 D or less.
Regarding claim 4, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein the absolute value of the difference in reflection power is 0.1 D or more and 0.5 D or less.
Regarding claim 5, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses a lens spectacles, wherein the electrochromic element is used.
Regarding claim 6, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses spectacles, wherein a plurality of the lenses for spectacles is used.
Regarding claim 9, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein the absolute value of the difference in reflection power in 50% or more of the spaces between the local regions adjacent to each other among the individual local regions is 0.05 D or more and 0.5 D or less.
Regarding claim 10, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein the absolute value of the difference in reflection power is 0.1 D or more and 0.5 D or less.
Regarding claim 11, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses a lens for spectacles, wherein the electrochromic element .
Regarding claim 12, combination of JP 2022-25243 A (Ricoh co ,Ltd) in view of JP 7-168209 A (Nikon Corporation) discloses wherein a plurality of the lenses for spectacles.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. 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.
7. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: wherein a maximum height undulation (Wz) in 30% or more of the individual 5 mm x 5 mm local regions obtained by splitting the 40 mm x 40 mm range at the center of the surface is 6 pm or more and 30 m or less.
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED A HASAN whose telephone number is (571)272-2331. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 6 AM -4 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bumsuk Won can be reached at 571-272-2713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMMED A HASAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872 8/25/2026
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