DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application Number 13/857,613, filed on April 5, 2013.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on March 6, 2025 and June 25, 2026 have been considered by the examiner.
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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 21 and 25 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wooley et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0059167).
With regard to independent claim 21, although Wooley et al teaches a lens for an eye (page 1, paragraph [0001]) comprising: an optical axis (see annotated Figure 4 below); an axial power profile extending from the optical axis, wherein the axial power profile includes the following characteristics: an on-axis negative power at the optical axis (see annotated Figure 4 below); a plurality of power transitions alternating between a local maxima power and a local minima power occurring in a region between the optical axis to a half-chord diameter of 3.5 mm; and a global maximum power located between 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm of the half-cord diameter (see annotated Figure 4 below), Wooley et al fails to teach such a lens wherein the on-axis negative power is less than 0.5D, however, it should be noted that selecting a dioptric power for a lens only requires one of routine skill in the art such that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the lens. As taught by Wooley et al, to provide corrected vision for a wearer based on the prescription oof the wearer.
PNG
media_image1.png
569
674
media_image1.png
Greyscale
With regard to dependent claim 25, Wooley et al teaches all of the limitations of the claimed invention as outlined above with respect to independent claim 21, and further teaches such a lens wherein the power transitions are each: continuous, discontinuous, monotonic or non-monotonic (see annotated Figure 4 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22-24 and 26-31 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 Wooley et al (U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0059167) teaches a lens for an eye as outlined above with respect to independent claim 21, Wooley et al fails to teach such a lens wherein: the axial power profile comprises a zero additional power at a half-chord diameter of at least 3.5 mm, as claimed in dependent claim 22; the axial power profile comprises a global minimum power located between 2.4 mm and 2.75 mm of the half-chord diameter, as claimed in dependent claim 23; the axial power profile has a first transition between a local minima power at the optical axis and an adjacent maxima power, the local minima power being within 0.25 mm of the optical axis and the adjacent maxima power being at least 0.4 mm, 0.5 mm or 0.6mm distance from the optical axis, as claimed in dependent claim 24; the plurality of power transitions comprise at least 8 power transitions across a 4 mm half-chord diameter of the lens, as claimed in dependent claim 26; the axial power profile has a best fit with a coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.975 and/or a root mean square error (RMSE) < 0.15 D when characterized upon testing by a function that uses at least 14 non-zero coefficients of a Fourier series expansion, as claimed in dependent claim 29; the axial power profile has a best fit with a coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.975 and/or a root mean square error (RMSE) < 0.15 D when characterized upon testing by a function that uses at least 14 non-zero, coefficients of a Fourier series and between 40 and 80 non-zero, symmetric, Zernike power polynomial coefficients, as claimed in dependent claim 30; or the axial power profile comprises an aberration profile with two or more higher order aberrations selected at least in part from a group including: a primary spherical aberration C(4,0); a secondary spherical aberration C(6,0); a tertiary spherical aberration C(8,0); a quaternary spherical aberration C(10,0); a pentanary spherical aberration C(12,0); a hexanary spherical aberration C(14,0); a heptanary spherical aberration C(16,0); an octanary spherical aberration C(18,0); and a nanonary spherical aberration 0(20,0), as claimed in dependent claim 31.
With regard to dependent claims 27 and 28, claims 27 and 28 are allowable as they depend, directly or indirectly, from dependent claim 26 and therefore inherit all of the limitations of the claim from which they depend.
Conclusion
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.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky L Mack can be reached at 571-272-2333. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DARRYL J COLLINS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
17 August 2026
Prosecution Insights