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 December 6th, 2024 has been considered by the examiner.
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 1-2 and 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Umezu (US 2005/0219718).
Regarding claim 1, Umezu discloses a lens unit (Figs. 1-7, elements L3-L4) that includes a plurality of lenses (L3a, L3b, L4), the lens unit comprising:
a holding frame (4) configured to hold a first lens (L4) of the plurality of lenses;
a first adjustment frame (313) configured to hold a first adjustment lens (L3a) of the plurality of lenses and adjust the first adjustment lens (L3a) in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”); and
a second adjustment frame (314) configured to hold a second adjustment lens (L3b) of the plurality of lenses and adjust the second adjustment lens (L3b) in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”),
wherein the first adjustment frame (313) and the second adjustment frame (314) are arranged on an object side in an optical axis direction with respect to the holding frame (as shown in Fig. 3, 313 and 314 are located on an object side of 4).
Regarding claim 2, Umezu further discloses further comprising:
a first fixing portion (312) configured to fix the first adjustment frame (313) to the holding frame (4, [0025], “A third guide bar 10 and a fourth guide bar 11 are held by the shift base 312”, [0026], “The focus moving frame 4 is supported by the third guide bar 10 and fourth guide bar 11 movably along the optical axis”, as shown in Fig. 4, 313 is secured to 312 and 312 is secured to 11, thus securing 313 to 4); and
a second fixing portion (313c) configured to fix the second adjustment frame (314) to the holding frame or the first adjustment frame ([0055], “The first shift barrel 313 crimping the third-a lens subunit L3a, and the second shift barrel 314 crimping the third-b lens subunit L3b are bonded with the adhesive 313c”).
Regarding claim 11, Umezu further discloses wherein the holding frame (4) moves in the optical axis direction by a guide bar ([0026], “The focus moving frame 4 is supported by the third guide bar 10 and fourth guide bar 11 movably along the optical axis”).
Regarding claim 12, Umezu discloses a lens barrel (Figs. 1-7, element 6) comprising:
a lens unit (elements L3-L4) including:
a holding frame (4) configured to hold a first lens (L4) of the plurality of lenses;
a first adjustment frame (313) configured to hold a first adjustment lens (L3a) of the plurality of lenses and adjust the first adjustment lens (L3a) in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”);
a second adjustment frame (314) configured to hold a second adjustment lens (L3b) of the plurality of lenses and adjust the second adjustment lens (L3b) in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”);
a first fixing portion (312) configured to fix the first adjustment frame (313) to the holding frame (4, [0025], “A third guide bar 10 and a fourth guide bar 11 are held by the shift base 312”, [0026], “The focus moving frame 4 is supported by the third guide bar 10 and fourth guide bar 11 movably along the optical axis”, as shown in Fig. 4, 313 is secured to 312 and 312 is secured to 11, thus securing 313 to 4); and
a second fixing portion (313c) configured to fix the second adjustment frame (314) to the holding frame or the first adjustment frame ([0055], “The first shift barrel 313 crimping the third-a lens subunit L3a, and the second shift barrel 314 crimping the third-b lens subunit L3b are bonded with the adhesive 313c”); and
a plurality of guide bars (10 and 11) configured to engage with the holding frame ([0026], “The focus moving frame 4 is supported by the third guide bar 10 and fourth guide bar 11 movably along the optical axis”),
wherein the first adjustment frame (313) and the second adjustment frame (314) are arranged on an object side in an optical axis direction with respect to the holding frame (as shown in Fig. 3, 313 and 314 are located on an object side of 4)., and
wherein the plurality of guide bars (10 and 11), the first fixing portion (312), and the second fixing portion (313c) are arranged not to overlap each other when viewed from the optical axis direction (as shown in Fig. 2, elements 10, 11, 312, and 313c do not overlap one another).
Regarding claim 13, Umezu discloses a method for adjusting a lens unit ([0043], “possible to move the third lens unit L3 in the orthogonal-to-optical-axis plane without causing it to lean towards the optical axis”) that includes a plurality of lenses (Figs. 1-7, elements L3a, L3b, L4),
wherein the lens unit includes:
a holding frame (4) configured to hold a first lens (L4) of the plurality of lenses;
a first adjustment frame (313) configured to hold a first adjustment lens of the plurality of lenses (L3a) and adjust the first adjustment lens (L3a) in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”); and
a second adjustment frame (314) configured to hold a second adjustment lens (L3b) of the plurality of lenses and adjust the second adjustment lens (L3b) in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0076], “the third-a lens subunit L3a and the third-b lens subunit L3b disposed in front of and behind the light-quantity-adjusting unit 7 are driven, in an orthogonal-to-optical-axis direction”), and
wherein the first adjustment frame (313) and the second adjustment frame (314) are arranged on an object side in an optical axis direction with respect to the holding frame (as shown in Fig. 3, 313 and 314 are located on an object side of 4),
the method comprising adjusting the first adjustment frame (313) in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis with respect to the holding frame ([0021], “a third lens unit L3 for compensating for image blur by moving in a plane substantially orthogonal to the optical axis”) in a state in which a movement of the second adjustment frame with respect to the first adjustment frame is restricted ([0055], “The first shift barrel 313 crimping the third-a lens subunit L3a, and the second shift barrel 314 crimping the third-b lens subunit L3b are bonded with the adhesive 313c”, since the two are bonded together, the movement of 314 is restricted with respect to 313).
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Umezu (US 2005/0219718) in view of Kura (JP 2014044283 A, as evidenced by the machine translation).
Regarding claim 3, Umezu discloses as is set forth in claim 2 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion at least partially overlap each other when viewed from the optical axis direction.
However Kura, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a lens unit, teaches wherein the first fixing portion (Fig. 1, element 26 connected to 43, [0015], “position adjustment member is provided with a plurality of adjustment screws that are screwed into each of the screw holes”) and the second fixing portion (element 26 connected to 44) at least partially overlap each other when viewed from the optical axis direction (as shown in Fig. 1, the element 26 connected to 43 and element 26 connected to 44 overlap one another in an optical axis direction).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the lens unit of Umezu with the wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion at least partially overlap each other when viewed from the optical axis direction as taught by Kura, for the purpose of allowing easy adjustment of the tilt and position of the optical axis ([0009]).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Umezu (US 2005/0219718) in view of Hasegawa (US 2016/0062071).
Regarding claim 4, Umezu discloses as is set forth in claim 2 rejection above but does not specifically disclose wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion are each filled with an adhesive.
However Hasegawa, in the same field of endeavor because both teach a lens unit, teaches wherein the first fixing portion (Figs. 1 and 5, elements 1a-1c) and the second fixing portion (2a-2c) are each filled with an adhesive ([0052], “adhesive agent filling holes 2a, 2b, and 2c of the second lens holder 2 and the adhesive agent receivers 1a, 1b, and 1c of the first lens holder 1 are aligned with each other”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to have the lens unit of Umezu with the wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion are each filled with an adhesive as taught by Hasegawa, for the purpose of improving space efficiency ([0079]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-10 and 14-15 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: with respect to the allowable subject matter, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed combination of limitations to warrant a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102 or 103.
Specifically, regarding claim 5, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or suggest wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion are each formed in a concave shape recessed toward an image side in the optical axis direction, and wherein a part of a side surface of the first fixing portion and a part of a side surface of the second fixing portion are continuous and integrally formed.
Specifically, regarding claim 6, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or suggest wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion are each formed in a concave shape recessed toward an image side in the optical axis direction, and wherein a bottom surface of the second fixing portion is configured by the adhesive filled in the first fixing portion.
Specifically, regarding claim 7, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or suggest wherein the first fixing portion and the second fixing portion have a through hole through which a fastening member is inserted in the optical axis direction, and wherein the holding frame is fastened with the fastening member that is inserted into the through hole of the first fixing portion and the through hole of the second fixing portion.
Claim 8 is objected to due to dependency upon claim 7.
Specifically, regarding claim 9, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or suggest further comprising: a first bonding portion configured to bond the first adjustment frame to the holding frame using an adhesive; a second bonding portion configured to bond the second adjustment frame to the holding frame or the first adjustment frame using an adhesive; a first fastening portion configured to fasten the first adjustment frame to the holding frame using a fastening member; and a second fastening portion configured to fasten the second adjustment frame to the holding frame or the first adjustment frame using the fastening member.
Claim 10 is objected to due to dependency upon claim 9.
Specifically, regarding claim 14, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or suggest wherein the first adjustment frame includes a first fastening portion configured to fasten the first adjustment frame to the holding frame, and wherein the second adjustment frame includes a second fastening portion configured to fasten the second adjustment frame to the holding frame or the first adjustment frame, the method further comprising inserting a regulating member into a through hole of the first fastening portion and a through hole of the second fastening portion to restrict a movement of the second adjustment frame with respect to the first adjustment frame.
Claim 15 is objected to due to dependency upon claim 14.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. Saito (US 2009/0263116), Nakamura (US 2006/0268434), Sato (US 2006/0045502), Tanaka (US 6,330,398) teach a lens unit that includes a plurality of lenses, the lens unit comprising: a holding frame configured to hold a first lens of the plurality of lenses; a first adjustment frame, a second adjustment frame, wherein the first adjustment frame and the second adjustment frame are arranged on an object side in an optical axis direction with respect to the holding frame.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW Y LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-3526. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 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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/MATTHEW Y LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2872 7 August 2026
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