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 statement (IDS) submitted on 10/18/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kimura (7359125) hereafter Kimura.
Regarding claim 1, Kimura discloses in fig. 3 a multifocal lens configured with multiple lens groups (shown in fig. 3) and having a focal position changed by changing positions of the lens groups (see fig. 3 and 5, note the focusing of the lens groups), wherein chromatic aberration of magnification of the multifocal lens is characterized in that a larger one of the amount of aberration at a wide angle end and the amount of aberration at a telephoto end is smaller than the amount of aberration in an intermediate region between the wide angle end and the telephoto end (see figs 4A, 4B, 4C, the aberration curves show that chromatic aberration is minimized near the intermediate region).
Regarding claim 11, Kimura discloses an imaging apparatus comprising: the multifocal lens according to claim 1; and an imager disposed in a reduction-side conjugate plane of the multifocal lens (fig. 3).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10 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 does not disclose the claimed combination of limitations to warrant a rejection under 35 USC 102 or 103.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES JONES whose telephone number is (571)270-1278. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 am - 4:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached at (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES C. JONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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