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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on October 15, 2024, December 27, 2024 and July 10, 2025 have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 6, 8, 11 and 16-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: In claims 3, 6, 8, 11 and 16-20, Applicant has referred to “another” concave/convex surface when describing the object side or image side of a lens. At the very least this appears to be unnecessary and possibly indefinite. It is unclear, for example, how the third lens is biconvex and “further comprises another convex surface facing the object side (see claim 3). If the third lens is defined as being “biconvex”, by definition it has a convex object side surface and a convex image side surface. It is not clear to which the “another” or “third” surface applies. Appropriate correction is required.
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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kao et al (U.S> Patent Publication 2023/0204917).
With regard to independent claim 1, Kao et al teaches a wide-angle lens assembly (Figure 20) comprising: a first lens (Figure 20, element 10) which is with refractive power (Figure 63, Focal Length data for First lens element); a second lens (Figure 20, element 20) which is with refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Second lens element); a third lens (Figure 20, element 30) which is with positive refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Third lens element = 8.373) and comprises a convex surface facing an image side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 32); a fourth lens (Figure 20, element 40) which is with refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Fourth lens element); a fifth lens (Figure 20, element 50) which is with positive refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Fifth lens element = 27.381) and comprises a convex surface facing the image side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 52); a sixth lens (Figure 20, element 60) which is with refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Sixth lens element); a seventh lens (Figure 20, element 70) which is with positive refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Seventh lens element = 59.065); and an eighth lens (Figure 20, element 80) which is with refractive (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Eighth lens element) and comprises a concave surface facing an object side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 81); wherein the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, the fifth lens, the sixth lens, the seventh lens, and the eighth lens are arranged in order from the object side to the image side along an optical axis (Figure 20).
With regard to dependent claim 2, Kao et al teaches all of the claimed limitations of the instant invention as outlined above with respect to independent claim 1, and further teaches such a wide-angle lens assembly wherein: the first lens is with negative refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for First lens element) = -8437.241); the second lens is with positive refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Second lens element = 49.426); the fourth lens is with negative refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Fourth lens element = -14.971); the sixth lens is with positive refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Sixth lens element = 19.008); and the eighth lens is with negative refractive power (Figure 36, Focal Length data for Eighth lens element = -9.054).
With regard to dependent claim 3, Kao et al teaches all of the claimed limitations of the instant invention as outlined above with respect to dependent claim 2, and further teaches such a wide-angle lens assembly wherein: the first lens comprises a concave surface facing the image side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 12); the second lens comprises a convex surface facing the object side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 21); the third lens is a biconvex lens (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 31 and Surface No. 32); and the eighth lens is a biconcave lens (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 81 and Surface No. 82).
With regard to dependent claim 4, Kao et al teaches all of the claimed limitations of the instant invention as outlined above with respect to dependent claim 3, and further teaches such a wide-angle lens assembly wherein: the first lens is a meniscus lens and further comprises a convex surface facing the object side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 11 and Surface No. 12); and the second lens is a meniscus lens and further comprises a concave surface facing the image side (Figure 36, Radius of Curvature data for Surface No. 21 and Surface No. 22).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-20 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: The prior art taken either singularly or in combination fails to anticipate or fairly suggest the limitations of the independent claims, in such a manner that a rejection under 35 U.S.C. §102 or §103 would be proper. Although Kao et al, considered by the examiner to be the closest prior art, teaches a wide-angle lens assembly comprising: a first lens which is with refractive power; a second lens which is with refractive power; a third lens which is with positive refractive power and comprises a convex surface facing an image side; a fourth lens which is with refractive power; a fifth lens which is with positive refractive power and comprises a convex surface facing the image side; a sixth lens which is with refractive power; a seventh lens which is with positive refractive power; and an eighth lens which is with refractive and comprises a concave surface facing an object side; wherein the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, the fifth lens, the sixth lens, the seventh lens, and the eighth lens are arranged in order from the object side to the image side along an optical axis, the Kao et al fails to teach such a wide-angle lens wherein: the first lens is a meniscus lens comprising a convex surface facing the object side and a concave surface facing the image side and is with negative refractive power; the second lens is a meniscus lens comprising a concave surface facing the image side and a convex surface facing the object side and is with positive refractive power; the third lens is a biconvex lens and further comprises another convex surface facing the object side; the fourth lens is with negative refractive power; the sixth lens is with positive refractive power; and the eighth lens is a biconcave lens and is with negative refractive power, simultaneously satisfying the conditional expressions: -245 ≤ Vd7/(f8/f4) ≤ 27; -3 mm ≤ (R51-R22)/Vd7 ≤ 41 mm; -1.2 mm-1 ≤ (Vd2-Vd6)/R22 ≤ 0.7 mm-1; -17 mm ≤ R22/Vd2 ≤ 6.2 mm; -3.1 mm ≤ f8-f4 ≤ 7.8 mm; -7.29 ≤ R32/T3 ≤ -4.16; -2.24 ≤ (R31+R32)/T3 ≤ 2.75; 4.92 mm ≤ T1+T2+T3 ≤ 7.95 mm; 14.32 ≤ TTL/T12 ≤ 18.01; 18.23 ≤ TTL/T34 ≤ 36.68, as defined and claimed in dependent clam 5; the first lens is a meniscus lens and further comprises a convex surface facing the object side; and the second lens is a biconvex lens, as claimed in dependent claim 6; wherein: the first lens is a biconcave lens and further comprises another concave surface facing the object side; and the second lens is a meniscus lens and further comprises a concave surface facing the image side, as claimed in dependent claim 8; the fourth lens is a biconcave lens and comprises a concave surface facing the object side and another concave surface facing the image side; the sixth lens is a biconvex lens and comprises a convex surface facing the object side and another convex surface facing the image side; and the seventh lens is a biconvex lens and comprises a convex surface facing the object side and another convex surface facing the image side, as claimed in dependent claim 10; or simultaneously satisfying the conditional expressions: -245 ≤ Vd7/(f8/f4) ≤ 27; -3 mm ≤ (R51-R22)/Vd7 ≤ 41 mm; -1.2 mm-1 ≤ (Vd2-Vd6)/R22 ≤ 0.7 mm-1; -17 mm ≤ R22/Vd2 ≤ 6.2 mm; -3.1 mm ≤ f8-f4 ≤ 7.8 mm; -7.29 ≤ R32/T3 ≤ -4.16; -2.24 ≤ (R31+R32)/T3 ≤ 2.75; 4.92 mm ≤ T1+T2+T3 ≤ 7.95 mm; 14.32 ≤ TTL/T12 ≤ 18.01; 18.23 ≤ TTL/T34 ≤ 36.68, as defined and claimed in dependent clam 15.
With regard to dependent claims 7, 9 11-14 and 16-20, claims 7, 9 11-14 and 16-20 are allowable as they depend, directly or indirectly, from dependent claims 6, 8, 10 and 15, respectively and therefore inherit all of the limitations of the claim from which they depend.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Yeh et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0067963), Hsu et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2024/0219688), Kwon (U.S. Patent Publication 2024/0085673), Dong et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2023/0221526), Jhang et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2023/0204914), Jhang et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2023/0204923), Chang (U.S. Patent Publication 2022/0229274), Yan et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0055520), Li et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0018729), Ye et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0355891) and Hirano (U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0209594) all teach optical imaging lens systems comprising eight lenses.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DARRYL J COLLINS whose telephone number is (571) 272-2325. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 5:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
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/DARRYL J COLLINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
20 July 2026
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