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 .
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 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) 1-4, 8-10, 13-17, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devota et al. (US 2014/0313337, hereinafter Devota) in view of Luo et al. (CN 114945068, hereinafter Luo).
Re claim 1, Devota discloses, a method for assembling a vehicular camera, the method comprising: attaching a plurality of electrically conductive pins to a lens holder (133), wherein the lens holder accommodates a lens element (par [0039]), the plurality of electrically conductive pins electrically connected to a(n) element that, when electrically powered, heats at least one lens element of the plurality of lens elements; guiding the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder to pass through a plurality of through-holes of a printed circuit board (PCB, figs 6-10)), wherein the PCB has a first side and a second side separated by a thickness of the PCB, and wherein an imager (134) is disposed at the first side of the PCB (par [0039]); with the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder passed through the plurality of through-holes, aligning the plurality of lens elements with the imager (figs 6-10); and after aligning the plurality of lens elements with the imager, securing the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder to the PCB to electrically connect the plurality of electrically conductive pins to circuitry of the PCB (par [0039]).
Devota fails to explicitly disclose limitations which are disclosed by Luo as follows: the plurality of electrically conductive pins electrically connected to a heating element that, when electrically powered, heats at least one lens element of the plurality of lens elements (Abstract, figs 1-4).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine : the plurality of electrically conductive pins electrically connected to a heating element that, when electrically powered, heats at least one lens element of the plurality of lens elements of Luo with the method of Devota in order to avoid lead winding phenomenon, to reduce the wiring difficulty, without exposed lead, to improve the safety performance, and further to ensure the electric connection stability.
The combination of Devota and Luo fails to explicitly disclose a plurality of lens elements.
Official Notice is taken to note that utilizing a plurality of lens elements is notoriously well known and used in the related art.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to combine utilizing a plurality of lens elements with the method of Devota and Luo in order to more precisely focus an image.
Re claim 2, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein securing the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder to the PCB comprises soldering the plurality of electrically conductive pins to the PCB (Devota pars [0038]-[0039]).
Re claim 3, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein the plurality of electrically conductive pins do not contact the PCB while aligning the lens holder with the imager (Devota fig 7).
Re claim 4, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein guiding the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder to pass through the plurality of through-holes of the PCB comprises applying solder paste to at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) the plurality of electrically conductive pins and (ii) the plurality of through-holes (Devota par [0035]).
Re claim 8, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein securing the plurality of electrically conductive pins of the lens holder to the PCB comprises using electrically conductive adhesive (Devota pars [0038]-[0039]).
Re claim 9, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 8 including wherein the electrically conductive adhesive is heat cured (Devota pars [0038]-[0039]).
Re claim 10, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein the plurality of electrically conductive pins comprises a copper material (Devota par [0037], copper is a well-known conductive material).
Re claim 13, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein the through-holes are plated using an electrically conductive material (Devota par [0036]).
Re claim 14, the combination of Devota and Luo discloses the limitations of claim 1 including wherein the plurality of lens elements is accommodated in a lens barrel that is disposed at the lens holder (Devota par [0044]).
Claims 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are rejected for the reasons stated in claims 1, 8, 14, 13, and 5, respectively. The method steps as claimed would have been obvious and expected by the method of Devota and Luo.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 11, 12, 18, 21, and 22 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.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOEL W FOSSELMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3728. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 - 5:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Twyler Haskins can be reached at (571)272-7406. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOEL W FOSSELMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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