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 06/20/2025 has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
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 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mizuno (EP 3235421 A1), of record.
Regarding independent claim 1, Mizuno discloses a scanning laser ophthalmoscope comprising:
a light source (11; Fig. 6; ¶0019) configured to irradiate measurement light (Fig. 6; ¶0019);
a scanner (16; Fig. 6; ¶0018) configured to sequentially irradiate the measurement light to a desired position of an eye to be examined by adjusting a reflection angle of the measurement light (Fig. 6; ¶0020);
an objective lens unit (50; Fig. 6; ¶0065) configured to focus the measurement light reflected from the scanner (16) to form a focus of the measurement light on a retina of the eye to be examined (Fig. 6); and
a light detector (25, 27, 29; Fig. 6; ¶0025) configured to detect retinal reflection light formed by the measurement light being reflected from the retina of the eye to be examined (Fig. 6; ¶0025),
wherein the objective lens unit (50) includes a first objective lens (55, 54; Fig. 6; ¶0075) positioned to be inclined at a first angle with a vertical direction of a traveling path of the measurement light (Fig. 6; ¶0079), a second objective lens (53, 52; Fig. 6; ¶0075) positioned to be inclined at a second angle therewith (Fig. 6; ¶0079), and a third objective lens (51; Fig. 6; ¶0075) positioned in the vertical direction of the traveling path of the measurement light (Fig. 6), and the inclination angle of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the inclination angle of the second objective lens (53, 52) are formed to be inclined in opposite directions with respect to the vertical direction of the traveling path of the measurement light (Fig. 6).
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.
Claim(s) 2-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mizuno (EP 3235421 A1) in view of Schmidt (US 20110221879 A1).
Regarding claims 2-5, Mizuno discloses the scanning laser ophthalmoscope of claim 1, as set forth above.
Mizuno further discloses the inclination angle of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the inclination angle of the second objective lens (53, 52) are formed at an angle in opposite directions with respect to the vertical direction of the traveling path of the measurement light (Fig. 6; ¶0080) so as to maintain the same traveling path of the measurement light before and after passing through the objective lens unit (50) (Fig. 6; ¶0080), as required by claim 2.
Mizuno further discloses the first objective lens (55, 54) and the second objective lens (53, 52) are different in at least one of thickness, shape and material (Fig. 6; ¶0076-¶0078), wherein the same traveling path of the measurement light before and after passing through the objective lens unit (50) is maintained (Fig. 6; ¶0080), as required by claim 4.
Mizuno further discloses the inclination angle of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the inclination angle of the second objective lens (53, 52) are adjusted so as to maintain the same traveling path of the measurement light before and after passing through the objective lens unit (50) (Fig. 6; ¶0080), as required by claim 5.
Mizuno does not disclose the inclination angle of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the inclination angle of the second objective lens (53, 52) are formed at the same angle in opposite directions with respect to the vertical direction of the traveling path of the measurement light, as required by claim 2, or that the first objective lens (55, 54) and the second objective lens (55, 54) have the same thickness, shape, and material, as required by claim 3. Mizuno further does not explicitly disclose the refractive indexes of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the second objective lens (53, 52) are adjusted to be the same, as required by claim 4. Mizuno additionally does not explicitly disclose the refractive indexes of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the second objective lens (53, 52) are different and the inclination angle of the first objective lens (55, 54) and the inclination angle of the second objective lens (53, 52) are adjusted differently, as required by claim 5.
However, it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art, In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233 (C.C.P.A. 1955), see MPEP 2144.05. In this case Mizuno has all the claimed elements of a scanning laser ophthalmoscope, fulfilling the general conditions of the claim. One would be motivated to adjust the refractive indexes, thicknesses, shapes, materials, and inclination angles of the first objective lens and the second objective lens to be the same or different relative to each other for the purpose of achieving the desired optical effects.
Schmidt teaches a similar optical system (Fig. 1) comprising a light source (3; Fig. 1; ¶0058) configured to irradiate measurement light (Fig. 1), an objective lens unit (4; Fig. 1; ¶0058), and a light detector (7; Fig. 1; ¶0058), wherein the objective lens unit (4) comprises a first objective lens (9; Fig. 1; ¶0058) positioned to be inclined at a first angle with a vertical direction of a traveling path of the measurement light (Fig. 1) and a second objective lens (10; Fig. 1; ¶0058) positioned to be inclined at a second angle therewith (Fig. 1). Schmidt further teaches the radii, types of glass, refractive indices, distances, and angles of tilt of the first objective lens (9) and the second objective lens (10) are optimized to achieve the desired optical properties including a correction of defects such as spherical aberration, field curvature, astigmatism, distortion, and chromatic aberration, as well as diminishment of a reflex effect on the light detector due to reflection (¶0065-¶0066).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mizuno to incorporate the teachings of Schmidt to adjust the refractive indexes, thicknesses, shapes, materials, and inclination angles of the first objective lens and the second objective lens to be the same or different relative to each other for the purpose of achieving the desired optical effects properties including a correction of defects such as spherical aberration, field curvature, astigmatism, distortion, and chromatic aberration, as well as diminishment of a reflex effect on the light detector due to reflection (¶0065-¶0066 of Schmidt).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Wall et al. (US 20180164583 A1), Humphrey (US 4415239 A), Rogers (John R. Rogers "Techniques and tools for obtaining symmetrical performance from tilted-component systems," Optical Engineering 39(7), null (1 Jul 2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/1.602557), and Rogers et al. (Jeremy D. Rogers, Tomasz S. Tkaczyk, Michael R. Descour, Ari H. Kärkkäinen, and Rebecca Richards-Kortum, "Removal of ghost images by using tilted element optical systems with polynomial surfaces for aberration compensation," Opt. Lett. 31, 504-506 (2006)) disclose optical systems with tilted lenses.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATASHA NIGAM whose telephone number is (571)270-5423. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8-5.
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/NATASHA NIGAM/Examiner, Art Unit 2872 June 8th, 2026
/RICKY L MACK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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