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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments are moot in view of the amendments to the claims and the new grounds of rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-6, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Feng et al (US Publication No.: US 2021/0149164 A1 of record, “Feng”) in view of Bone et al (US Publication No.: US 2015/0036230 A1, “Bone”).
Regarding Claim 1, Feng discloses an imaging lens system (Figure 1) comprising:
A first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens, sequentially arranged from an object side (Figure 1, first lens E1, second lens E2, third lens E3, fourth lens E4, fifth lens E5, sixth lens E6, seventh lens E7, eighth lens E8), wherein
The seventh lens has a convex image-side surface (Paragraph 0055 discloses a convex image-side surface S14 of the seventh lens E7), wherein
The imaging lens system satisfied the following conditional expression:
1.10<f3/f<1.40 (Table 6, f3=8.15, f=7, f3/f=1.16), where
f is a focal length of the imaging lens system, and f3 is a focal length of the third lens.
Feng fails to disclose that the eighth lens has positive refractive power and that the sixth lens has a convex object-side surface.
However, Bone discloses a similar imaging lens system where the eighth lens has positive refractive power and that the sixth lens has a convex object-side surface (Bone, Paragraph 0002; Paragraph 0022).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the eight lens and sixth lens as disclosed by Feng to have positive refractive power and a convex object-side as disclosed by Bone. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of achieving a high-resolution lens system (Bone, Paragraph 0003).
Regarding Claim 2, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1.
Feng fails to disclose that the first lens has a concave image-side surface.
However, Bone discloses a similar lens system where the first lens has a concave image-side surface (Bone, Paragraph 0022).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the first lens as disclosed by Feng to have a concave image-side surface as disclosed by Bone. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of achieving a high-resolution lens system (Bone, Paragraph 0003).
Regarding Claim 3, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1, wherein the second lens has a convex image-side surface (Feng, Paragraph 0055 discloses an image-side surface S4 of the second lens E2 to be convex).
Regarding Claim 4, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1, wherein the third lens has a convex image-side surface (Feng, Paragraph 0055 discloses an image-side surface S6 to be convex of the third lens E3).
Regarding Claim 5, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1, wherein the fourth lens has a concave image-side surface (Feng, Paragraph 0055 discloses an image-side surface S8 of the fourth lens E4 to be concave)
Regarding Claim 6, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1, wherein the fifth lens has a convex image-side surface (Feng, Paragraph 0055 discloses an image-side surface S10 of the fifth lens E10 to be convex).
Regarding Claim 8, Feng in view of Hong discloses a camera module (Paragraph 0049) comprising:
A housing (Paragraph 0107);
A lens barrel disposed in the housing and accommodating the imaging lens system of claim 1 (Figure 1; Paragraph 0107); and
An image sensor disposed in the housing at an imaging plane of the imaging lens system (Paragraph 0107).
Claim 7 is ejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Feng in view of Bone in further view of Hong et al (US 2019/0235196 A1 of record, “Hong”).
Regarding Claim 7, Feng in view of Bone discloses the imaging lens system of claim 1.
Feng fails to disclose that the sixth lens has a concave image-side surface
However, Hong discloses a similar lens system where the sixth lens has a concave image-side surface (Hong, Paragraph 0062).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the sixth lens as disclosed by Feng to have a concave image-side surface as disclosed by Hong. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of achieving a high-resolution lens system (Hong, Paragraph 0035).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 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 10-21 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 10, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest an imaging lens system comprising: a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens, sequentially arranged from an object side, wherein the imaging lens system satisfies the following conditional expression: 1.0<L1DTn+L4DTn)/(L5DTn+L8DTn)<1.4, wherein L1DTn is a rate of change in refractive index according to a change in temperature of the first lens, L4DTn is a rate of change in refractive index according to a change in temperature of the fourth lens, L5DTn is a rate of change in refractive index according to a change in temperature of the fifth lens, and L8DTn is a rate of change in refractive index according to a change in temperature of the eighth lens, in combination with the remaining features recited in the claim.
The prior art of Hong (US 2019/0235196 A1) discloses an imaging lens comprising eight lenses having particular rate of changes in refractive indices (Hong, Table 3; Figure 1). However, Hong fails to explicitly disclose that 1.0<L1DTn+L4DTn)/(L5DTn+L8DTn)<1.4. The prior art of Feng (US 2021/0149164 A1) discloses an imaging lens comprising eight lenses which compares the focal lengths of lenses to an overall focal length (Feng, Figure 1; Table 6). However, Feng also fails to disclose 1.0<L1DTn+L4DTn)/(L5DTn+L8DTn)<1.4.
Regarding Claim 20, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest an imaging lens system comprising: a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, and an eighth lens, sequentially arranged from an object side, wherein the seventh lens has a convex image-side surface, wherein the eighth lens has positive refractive power, and wherein the imaging lens system satisfied the following conditional expression: 4.0<|L3DTn|<8.0 (10-6/°C), where L3DTn is a refractive index rate of change according to the temperature change of the third lens, in combination with the remaining features recited in the claim.
The prior art of Hong (US 2019/0235196 A1) discloses an imaging lens comprising eight lenses having particular rate of changes in refractive indices (Hong, Table 3; Figure 1). However, Hong discloses L3DTn to be 1.7 or 0.2, both of which do not fall within the claimed. The prior art of Feng (US 2021/0149164 A1) discloses an imaging lens comprising eight lenses which compares the focal lengths of lenses to an overall focal length (Feng, Figure 1; Table 6). However, Feng also fails to disclose 4.0<|L3DTn|<8.0 (10-6/°C).
Therefore, Claims 10 and 20 are allowed. Claims 11-19, 21 are allowed by virtue of their dependence on the allowed claims.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/MARIAM QURESHI/Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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