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 .
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.
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) [1-7, 11-16 and 18-20) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US. 2019/0230262) in view of Seo(2020/0363626).
Reclaim [1], Wang discloses a camera module (see figs. 1 and 6) comprising: a reflection module (see 1-B1210 fig. 6); a housing configured to accommodate the reflection module to be rotatable (1-B1220 1nd 1-B1230 fig. 6); a guide ball member disposed between the reflection module and the housing to guide the rotation of the reflection module (1-B1240 fig. 6); and a ball receiving portion, coupled to the housing (see 1-B1250), comprising a groove portion where the guide ball member is disposed (see the Hollow portion on 1-B1230 as depicted in fig. 6)
Wang doesn’t seem to explicitly disclose a flange portion extending externally from the groove portion, wherein the ball receiving portion is formed of a material having higher rigidity than a material of the housing.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Seo discloses an optical module as Wang (see Seo fig. 2). Seo further discloses a flange portion extending externally from the groove portion (see 152 and 152a , 151a fig. 2 [ the flange being 152 external to the guide grooves 151a and 152 a as depicted in fig. 2), wherein a ball receiving portion is formed of a material having higher rigidity than a material of the housing (see ¶¶0064-0065, The substrate 130 may be one of various types of substrates, such as a flexible substrate, a rigid substrate, [the housing is flexible by the virtue of the substrate 130 and the portion the grove 151a bearing or ball is receiving as depicted in fig. 2 is rigid in order to mechanically hold the ball bearings ).
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify the reflector holder of Wang before the effective filling date of the claimed invention by reconfiguring the reflector and Reflector holder of Wang as thought in Seo since this would allow to implement image stabilization while reflecting light using a reflector and thereby enhancing usability (see Seo ¶0049).
Reclaim [2] Wang as modified further discloses wherein the ball receiving portion is coupled to a bottom surface of the housing, and an upper surface of the flange portion is exposed externally from the bottom surface of the housing (see Seo 113 fig. 2).
Reclaim [3] Wang as modified further discloses, wherein an upper surface of the flange portion and a portion of a bottom surface of the housing are disposed on a same plane (see Seo 110, 150 fig. 4, the flange 152 is associated with 150 as depicted in fig. 2).
Reclaim [4] Wang as modified further disclose, wherein an upper surface of the flange portion directly faces the reflection module in a rotation axis direction of the reflection module (see Seo 150, 173 fig. 4 [ flange 152 is associated with the drive holder 150 as depicted in fig. 2 and disclosed in the text of ¶0067).
Reclaim [5] Wang as modified further disclose, wherein the flange portion separates the groove portion from a portion of a bottom surface of the housing in a direction perpendicular to a rotation axis of the reflection module (see Seo 173, 150 and 151a fig. 3).
Reclaim [6] Wang as modified further disclose, wherein a bottom surface of the groove portion is flat (see Seo 151a fig. 3).
Reclaim [7] Wang as modified further disclose, wherein the material of the ball receiving portion is meta (see Wang ¶0747, the second guiding assembly 11-B12 is a curve slot formed on the housing 11-B11)
Reclaim [11] Wang as modified further discloses, further comprising a pulling yoke and a driving unit rotating the reflection module, wherein the driving unit comprises a driving magnet and a driving coil electromagnetically interacting with the driving magnet, and the pulling yoke faces the driving magnet (see Seo ¶0059, the first pulling member 115 may be molded in the support protrusion portion 112, or the first pulling member 115 may be inserted in a groove in the support protrusion portion 112.).
Reclaim [12] Wang as modified further disclose further comprising a pulling yoke and a driving unit rotating the reflection module, wherein the driving unit comprises a driving magnet and a driving coil electromagnetically interacting with the driving magnet, and the pulling yoke faces the driving magnet (see ¶0060, the first pulling member 115 and the second pulling member 155 may be a magnet and a yoke (formed of a magnetic material), respectively, and the third pulling member 175 may be a magnet).
Reclaim [13] Wang as modified, further comprising a first ball member, wherein the first ball member is rotated in place and forms a rotation axis about which the reflection module is rotated, and the guide ball member is configured to roll in the groove portion by the rotation of the reflection module (see Seo ¶0029, FIGS. 5 and 6 are views illustrating example rotational movements of a driving holder of the folded optics reflecting module of FIG. 1 about a first axis (X axis) perpendicular to an optical axis, according to an embodiment).
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Reclaim [14] Wang discloses a camera module (see figs. 1 and 6) comprising: a reflection module (see 1-B1210 fig. 6); a housing configured to accommodate the reflection module to be rotatable (1-B1220 1nd 1-B1230 fig. 6); a guide ball member disposed between the reflection module and the housing to guide the rotation of the reflection module (1-B1240 fig. 6); and a ball receiving portion, coupled to the housing (see 1-B1250), comprising a groove portion where the guide ball member is disposed (see the Hollow portion on 1-B1230 as depicted in fig. 6)
Wang doesn’t seem to explicitly discloses a flange portion extending externally from the groove portion, wherein a material of the ball receiving portion has a higher rigidity than a material of the housing, and the groove portion and the guide ball member are in one-point contact with each other.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Seo discloses an optical as Wang (see Seo fig. 2).
Seo further discloses a flange portion extending externally from the groove portion (see 152 and 152a fig. 2), wherein a material of the ball receiving portion has a higher rigidity than a material of the housing ((see ¶¶0064-0065, The substrate 130 may be one of various types of substrates, such as a flexible substrate, a rigid substrate, [the housing is flexible by the virtue of the substrate 130 and the portion the grove 151a bearing or ball is receiving as depicted in fig. 2 is rigid in order to mechanically hold the ball bearings]) , and the groove portion and the guide ball member are in one-point contact with each other (see ¶0059, bearings 113 may be inserted into the first guide groove 112a),
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify the reflector holder of Wang before the effective filling date of the claimed invention by reconfiguring the reflector and Reflector holder of Wang as thought in Seo since this would allow to implement image stabilization while reflecting light using a reflector and thereby enhancing usability (see Seo ¶0049).
Reclaim [15] Wang as modified further discloses, wherein a bottom surface of the groove portion is curved (see Seo 152a is curved at the bottom as depicted).
Reclaim [16] Wang as modified further discloses, wherein the bottom surface is curved based on a cross section of the groove portion in a width direction (see 151a fig. 2, curved in a width direction).
Reclaim [18] Wang as modified further discloses, wherein an upper surface of the flange portion is exposed externally when viewing an internal side of the housing from an object side (see Seo 152 fig. 2 ).
Reclaim [19] Wang as modified further discloses, wherein an upper surface of the flange portion and a portion of an inner bottom surface of the housing are disposed on a same plane. (see Seo 150 110 figs. 2 and 4).
Reclaim [20] Wang as modified further disclose, wherein an upper surface of the flange portion directly faces the reflection module in a rotation axis direction in which the reflection module is rotated (see Seo 150, 173 fig. 4, [ the flange being on 150 as depicted in fig 2 and the reflection surface being 173 as depicted in figs. 2 and 4).
Claim(s) [8] is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US. 2019/0230262) in view of Seo(2020/0363626) and Jang (US. 2022/0272238).
Reclaim [8] Wang as modified by Seo (combination) do not seem to explicitly disclose, grease coated on the groove portion.
Nonetheless in the same filed of endeavor as the combination Jang discloses an optical module (see Jang Fig. %b). Jang further discloses: grease coated on the groove portion (see¶ 0215 a lubricating member such as grease may be applied to a portion where the ball bearing 350 and the pulling magnet 360 are in contact with each other) .
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify the combination before the effective filling date of the calmed invention by the teachings of Jang since this would allow to minimize frictional force when the bearing ball of the combination rotates.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims [9-10 and 17] 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:
Reclaim [9] none of the prior arts on the record either alone or in combination teaches or reasonably suggests: wherein the ball receiving portion comprises a first ball receiving portion and a second ball receiving portion and the first ball receiving portion and the second ball receiving portion are disposed on opposite sides of an intermediate position of the housing in a width direction.
Claim [10] is allowed due to its dependency on claim [9].
Reclaim [17] none of the prior arts on the record either alone or in combination teaches or reasonably suggests: The camera module of claim 16, wherein the cross section has a radius of curvature greater than a radius of curvature of the guide ball member.
202202
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED A BERHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5094. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00Am-5:00pm (MAX- Flex).
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/AHMED A BERHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639