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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4-6, 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al.(KR20180033644 of record).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Park discloses an optical system for a vehicle comprising: a camera configured to acquire images of the environment outside the vehicle, a protective outer lens configured to be arranged to face the camera, the protective outer lens including an outer face facing the outside of the vehicle and an inner face facing the camera, wherein the inner face of the protective outer lens has a local radius of curvature R2 defined so that the protective outer lens has a focal length that tends toward infinity (Paragraph [0036] explicitly indicates that the focal length is infinite: "That is, the x-axis 110 of the curved surface window is formed to have a focal length F 1 of a predetermined size, and the y-axis 120 of the curved surface window is configured to have an infinite focal length, And a light beam is generated by the aberration due to the focus difference between the x-axis 110 and the y-axis 120 of the curved surface window").
Regarding claims 4 and 8, Park discloses the optical system as claimed in claim 1 or 6, wherein the outer face has a set of local radii of curvature R1 (different radiuses of curvature according to two axes).
Regarding claims 5 and 9, Park discloses the optical system as claimed in claim 1 or 6, wherein the inner face has a set of local radii of curvature R2 (different radiuses of curvature according to two axes).
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al.(KR20180033644 of record), as applied to claim 1 above, in view of KOSHIBA (US 20210231839 A1).
Park discloses the optical system as claimed in claim 1. However, Park wherein the camera is an RGB or infrared camera. Koshiba discloses a vehicle-mounted camera and teaches wherein the camera is infrared camera (par.[0154]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before effective filing date of the claimed invention, to apply teachings of Koshiba to device of Park for capturing an image in the visible light region.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 7 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: (claim 2) wherein the local radius of curvature R2 is such that R2=R1−(n−1)d/n, where R1 is a local radius of curvature of the outer face, d is a local thickness of the protective outer lens, and n is the refractive index of the protective outer lens; (claim 7) wherein the local radius of curvature R2 is such that R2=R1−(n−1)d/n, where R1 is a local radius of curvature of the outer face, d is a local thickness of the protective outer lens, and n is a refractive index of the protective outer lens.
Conclusion
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/TUYEN TRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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