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 .
Reissue Applications
This application seeks to reissue US Patent No. 11,656,537 (“the ‘537 patent”). In a preliminary amendment, claims 1, 7-8, and 11 have been amended, claims 12-19 have been canceled, and new claims 20-32 have been introduced. Claims 1-11 and 20-32 are pending. This is a broadening reissue application
For reissue applications filed before September 16, 2012, all references to 35 U.S.C. 251 and 37 CFR 1.172, 1.175, and 3.73 are to the law and rules in effect on September 15, 2012. Where specifically designated, these are “pre-AIA ” provisions.
For reissue applications filed on or after September 16, 2012, all references to 35 U.S.C. 251 and 37 CFR 1.172, 1.175, and 3.73 are to the current provisions.
Applicant is reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.178(b), to timely apprise the Office of any prior or concurrent proceeding in which Patent No. 11,656,537 is or was involved. These proceedings would include any trial before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, interferences, reissues, reexaminations, supplemental examinations, and litigation.
Applicant is further reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.56, to timely apprise the Office of any information which is material to patentability of the claims under consideration in this reissue application.
These obligations rest with each individual associated with the filing and prosecution of this application for reissue. See also MPEP §§ 1404, 1442.01 and 1442.04.
Applicant’s Response
Claims 23 and 24 were rejected in the previous Office action under §§ 112(a) and 251 because it was stated that the specification does not disclose that “the lens apparatus does not include an electrical contact that contacts the first communication electrical contact.” NFOA at 7. The applicant traverses, stating that the specification describes this feature in its disclosure that “the electrical contacts 6010 and 6011 may not be provided with the electrical contacts.” Remarks at 10. This argument is persuasive and these rejections under §§ 112(a) and 251 are withdrawn.
The §§ 112(b), 112(d), and 251 rejections are withdrawn in view of the applicant’s cancelation of claim 32.
Claims 1-11, 20-22, and 25-32 were rejected under §103 based on a combination of Osawa and Tokunaga. NFOA at 10-20. The rejection of claim 1 equated to Osawa’s DOL terminal 27 to the claimed “third electrical contact.” NFOA at 11. This terminal in Osawa communicates the type of the connected lens to the camera body. Osawa ¶¶ 66-68. Therefore, this terminal does not meet the claim limitation requiring that “the third electrical contact is not used to communicate” with the camera body. See NFOA at 11. Tokunaga discloses a “DTEF terminal” on a lens that does not communicate with a camera body, and enables the camera to detect the type of connected lens. Id. at 11-12 and Tokunaga at ¶¶ 71-74. The claim rejection stated that motivation existed to use Tokunaga’s terminal in Osawa’s system, as this would provide a “simpler and faster way to detect the lens type.” NFOA at 12.
The applicant submits that “there is no need in Osawa to additionally provide a terminal specifically for identifying the type of lens” separate from Osawa’s DOL terminal 27. Remarks at 13. The examiner disagrees. The fact that Osawa already communicates the lens type to the camera body does not mean that the POSITA would have concluded that this system could not be improved.
As was stated in the claim rejection, the POSITA would have recognized that including a separate terminal for detecting lens type (that is, Tokunaga’s DTEF terminal: see Tokunaga ¶71) would have improved Osawa because this would have provided a superior way to detect the lens type. See NFOA at 12. It is noted that Tokunaga discloses a DLC terminal for communicating between lens and camera body, in addition to the DTEF (“lens type”) terminal. See Tokunaga ¶57. The POSITA would conclude that the DTEF terminal in Tokunaga provides a way to detect camera lens type that is faster and more efficient than communicating this information via the DCL terminal, and that this is why Tokunaga includes both terminals. Therefore the POSITA would have concluded that a modification of Osawa to have both terminal types would likewise have improved Osawa.
The DTEF terminal in Tokunaga is located at a position that is not between first and second distal-end electrical contacts, as the applicant points out with reference to Tokunaga Fig. 1C. See Remarks at 12-13. However, this terminal location was not relied upon in the claim rejection, and the Osawa-Tokunaga combination would not require that the terminal be placed at a distal-end location among lens contacts.
When modifying Osawa’s lens, the POSITA would not have found it necessary to place Tokunaga’s DTEF terminal below Osawa’s GND 28 terminal. The terminal in Osawa that enables detection of lens type is located between the claimed first and second contacts. See NFOA at 11. The location of this terminal in Osawa at least suggests that, when combining Osawa and Tokunaga, the “third electrical contact” would be located between the claimed first and second contacts, as is required in claim 1. In addition, it has not been shown that the claimed location is more than a matter of engineering choice. See, for example, MPEP 2144.04(VI)(C) and In re Kuhle, 526 F.2d 553 (CCPA 1975) (the particular placement of a contact in a conductivity measuring device was held to be an obvious matter of design choice). Therefore the applicant has not shown that the claimed location of the third electrical contact describes a non-obvious invention over these combined teachings of Osawa and Tokunaga.
The applicant’s arguments amount to attacking Osawa and Tokunaga individually, when the claims were rejected based on their combined teachings. See MPEP 2145 IV. The fact that Osawa’s terminal is used for communicating with the camera body, and that Tokunaga’s terminal is at a distal end location (see Remarks at 13), is not relevant to the claim rejections because neither of these teachings were relied upon in the §103 rejection.
The assertions of official notice that were given in the rejections of claims 3-6 were not traversed, rendering the asserted subject matter admitted prior art. See MPEP 2144.03(C).
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.
Claims 1-11, 20-22, and 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Osawa, US 20110170853 in view of Tokunaga, US 20150049244.
Claim 1: Osawa discloses a lens apparatus attachable to and detachable from an image pickup apparatus (Detachable lens 2 attaches to camera 1. Fig. 1 and ¶28) supporting both a clock synchronous communication method and an asynchronous communication method (The camera supports synchronous and asynchronous communications. ¶35.), the lens apparatus comprising:
an imaging optical system (Fig. 1);
a first-shaped mount part directly engageable with a mount part of the image pickup apparatus (Fig. 1: 3 and 4 are mounts on camera body and lens, respectively. See ¶¶30-31.) and including a plurality of electrical contacts, the plurality of electrical contacts having a first electrical contact disposed at a first distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts (Fig. 1: 24) and a second electrical contact disposed at a second distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts (Fig. 1: 28); and
a controller configured to communicate with the image pickup apparatus using only the clock synchronous communication method from among the clock synchronous communication method and the asynchronous communication method (For a I-type lens that does not support asynchronous communications, the lens communicates via synchronous communications. ¶35),
wherein the plurality of electrical contacts includes a third electrical contact that is disposed, among the plurality of electrical contacts, between the first electrical contact disposed at the first distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts and the second electrical contact disposed at the second distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts and is not used to supply power from the image pickup apparatus (The lens DOL terminal 27 is between terminals 24 and 28, and is used to communicate the type of lens to the camera body. See Fig. 1: 27 and ¶¶66-68. This contact does not supply power from the camera body.), and
wherein the third electrical contact disposed between the first electrical contact disposed at the first distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts and the second electrical contact disposed at the second distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts enables a type of the lens apparatus that is attached to the image pickup apparatus to be determined from among a plurality of types of lens apparatuses (The third electrical contact (DOL terminal 27) enables the lens type to be determined by the camera body. ¶¶ 66-68.).
Osawa does not disclose that the third electrical contact is not used to communicate with the image pickup apparatus.
However, Tokunaga discloses an electrical contact that enables a type of lens that is attached to an image pickup apparatus to be determined, where the electrical contact is not used to communicate with the image pickup apparatus (Determination unit 213 in the lens has a resistance that indicates which lens type is connected. ¶¶71-74. This meets the broadest reasonable interpretation of “not used to communicate with the image pickup apparatus” when that phrase is understood in light of the ‘537 patent. See e.g. ‘537 patent at 9:48-60.).
It would have been obvious to a skilled artisan before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Osawa with these teachings in Tokunaga. The rationale for making this modification would have been to provide a simpler and faster way to detect the lens type.
Claim 2: Osawa discloses that the first-shaped mount part is undetachable from the imaging optical system (Fig. 1 and ¶¶ 28 and 31 – mount 4 is an integral part of the lens).
Claim 3: the Osawa-Tokunaga combination fails to disclose that the lens comprises an operation member operable by a user, wherein the lens apparatus changes a setting of at least one of an F-number, a shutter speed, an ISO speed, and an exposure correction amount, when the operation member is operated while the lens apparatus is attached to the image pickup apparatus. However, official notice is taken that this was well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Therefore it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to modify the Osawa-Tokunaga lens to include this, the rationale being to provide users of the lens with greater control over the capture of the image.
Claim 4: the Osawa-Tokunaga combination discloses that the controller sends individual information of the lens apparatus to the image pickup apparatus according to a first information request received from the image pickup apparatus when the lens apparatus is attached to the image pickup apparatus using the clock synchronous communication method (Data is communicated from the lens to the camera. Tokunaga ¶¶57 and 68-69 and Osawa ¶¶104-105. This information is information relating to the operation of the lens, thus is “individual information of the lens apparatus.” Data is transmitted from lens to camera based on data requests received from the camera. Osawa ¶104. Because the lens does not support asynchronous communications, this information is delivered using the synchronous method. Osawa ¶35. Additionally, all initial setup communications are performed using the synchronous communications. Osawa ¶64).
Osawa-Tokunaga fails to disclose that the controller sends to the image pickup apparatus information on whether or not there is the operation member, according to a second information request received from the image pickup apparatus after the lens apparatus sends the individual information. However, official notice is taken that this was well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. It was well known for a camera body to query a lens for specific capabilities, and for the lens to respond with data indicating whether there is a particular operating member. Therefore it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to modify the Osawa-Tokunaga lens to include this, the rationale being to ensure that the camera body is able to properly function with a wide variety of lens abilities.
Claims 5 and 6 recite that a 35 mm equivalent focal length of the imaging optical system at a telephoto end is 40 mm or less, and that the following expression is satisfied: β≥0.5 where β is a lateral magnification when focused on a shortest distance. In light of the written description, these claims are understood to describe wide-angle and macro lenses, respectively. These lens types are not explicitly described in the Osawa-Tokunaga system. However, official notice is taken that these lenses were well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Therefore it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to modify the Osawa-Tokunaga system to function with these lens types, the rationale being to enable the camera to function with a wide variety of popular lenses.
Claim 7 recites that the following expression is satisfied: 10≤d1≤30 where d1 [mm] is a backfocus of the imaging optical system. Claim 8 recites that the following expression is satisfied:14≤d2≤22 where d2 [mm] is a flange back of the lens apparatus. In light of the written description, these claims are understood to describe lenses that are used in a mirrorless camera. However, the ‘537 patent admits that this type of interchangeable lens and camera were known in the prior art. See ‘537 patent at 1:23-33. When presented with the Osawa-Tokunaga combination, the POSITA would have found it obvious to modify this system to work with mirrorless cameras using these types of lenses, the rationale being to benefit from the advantages of mirrorless cameras, such as reduced footprint size and improved optics. When making this modification, the POSITA would have found the claimed backfocus and back flange sizes to be an obvious matter of engineering choice. See MPEP 2144.04. Therefore the invention that is recited in claims 7 and 8 is only an obvious variant of the Osawa-Tokunaga combination.
Claim 9: the Osawa discloses that the controller transmits lens ID information of the lens apparatus, which indicates that the asynchronous communication method is not supported, to the image pickup apparatus (¶90). Therefore it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan, when combining Osawa and Tokunaga, to maintain this ability for the lens to communicate its ID information as in Osawa, while also enabling detection of lens type based on teachings in Tokunaga. The rationale for this would have been to enable the lens to transmit more detailed identification information that describes its name and capabilities, as Osawa suggests in ¶90.
Claim 10: Osawa discloses that the asynchronous communication method has a communication speed higher than that of the clock synchronous communication method (¶¶69-71. See also the description of Fig. 4 and Fig. 8.).
Claim 11: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses an image pickup system comprising: an image pickup apparatus including an image sensor (Osawa Fig. 1 and ¶29); and the lens apparatus, according to claim 1, attachable to and detachable from the image pickup apparatus (see rejection of claim 1. The lens 2 is interchangeable, thus attachable to and detachable from the camera body 1. See ¶¶28-29.).
Claim 20: Osawa-Tokunaga does not disclose that the third electrical contact is disposed, among the plurality of electrical contacts, immediately adjacent to an electrical contact that is used to supply power from the image pickup apparatus. However, this does not describe a patentable distinction over the Osawa-Tokunaga combination. Lacking a clear indication that placing the contacts in this specific order provides a non-obvious improvement, this claimed arrangement is an obvious matter of design choice. See MPEP 2144.04 VI.C.
Claim 21: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that the plurality of electrical contacts further includes a fourth electrical contact configured to be used to detect an attachment of the lens apparatus with the image pickup apparatus (Tokunaga ¶¶58-59). Osawa-Tokunaga does not disclose that the fourth electrical contact is disposed, among the plurality of electrical contacts, between the first electrical contact disposed at the first distal end the plurality of electrical contacts and the second electrical contact disposed at the second distal end of the plurality of electrical contacts. Similar to claim 20, this does not describe a patentable distinction over the Osawa-Tokunaga combination. Lacking a clear indication that placing the contacts in this specific order provides a non-obvious improvement, this claimed arrangement is an obvious matter of design choice. See MPEP 2144.04 VI.C.
Claim 22: Tokunaga discloses that the third electrical contact is configured to be used to indicate a predetermined voltage value in a state where the first-shaped mount part is directly engaged with the mount part of the image pickup apparatus, the predetermined voltage value corresponding to a digital value in a range of 0x0280 to 0x037F (¶74).
Claim 25: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that the plurality of electrical contacts includes a plurality of communication electrical contacts that is used for communication with the image pickup apparatus by the clock synchronous communication method (Osawa Fig. 1: contacts 25-27 are used to communicate using the clock synchronous method. ¶¶ 31-35.).
Claim 26: Tokunaga discloses that the plurality of electrical contacts includes a fifth electrical contact that is adjacent to the plurality of communication electrical contacts, wherein the fifth electrical contact contacts a predetermined electrical contact in the image pickup apparatus in a state where the first-shaped mount part is directly engaged with the mount part of the image pickup apparatus, and wherein the fifth electrical contact is not used for communication with the image pickup apparatus by the clock synchronous communication method and the asynchronous communication method (Fig. 1B: MIF terminal 1-4. ¶58).
Claim 27: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that the fifth electrical contact is connected to ground via a resistor (Tokunaga Fig. 1B: 1-4).
Claim 28: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that the mount part of the image pickup apparatus is directly engageable with a mount part of a first lens apparatus different from the lens apparatus, and wherein the first lens apparatus includes a predetermined electrical contact corresponding to the third electrical contact, and a communication part that communicates with the image pickup apparatus by the clock synchronous communication method and the asynchronous communication method (The camera body accepts interchangeable lenses. Osawa ¶28. Therefore the mount part of the camera is engageable with a different lens apparatus. Each lens has a contact that is used to determine the lens type (Osawa Fig. 1 and Tokunaga ¶¶71-74) as well as a communication component to communicate via synchronous or asynchronous methods. Osawa ¶28.).
Claim 29: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that a resistance of a resistor connected to the third electrical contact is different from a resistance of a resistor connected to the predetermined electrical contact of the first lens apparatus (Tokunaga ¶¶ 71-74.).
Claim 30: Osawa-Tokunaga discloses that the third electrical contact is used to distinguish the lens apparatus from the first lens apparatus (Osawa ¶¶ 66-68, Tokunaga ¶¶ 71-74.).
Claims 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Osawa and Tokunaga in view of Tsukamoto, US 20180352140.
Claim 23: the Osawa-Tokunaga combination fails to disclose that the image pickup apparatus includes a first communication electrical contact that is used for communication with a first lens apparatus different from the lens apparatus, and wherein the lens apparatus does not include an electrical contact that contacts the first communication electrical contact in a state where the first-shaped mount part is directly engaged with the mount part of the image pickup apparatus.
However, Tsukamoto discloses an image pickup apparatus that includes a first communication electrical contact that is used for communication with a first lens apparatus different from the lens apparatus, and wherein the lens apparatus does not include an electrical contact that contacts the first communication electrical contact in a state where the first-shaped mount part is directly engaged with the mount part of the image pickup apparatus (The camera body includes contacts that are only connected when the accessory device (that is, a first lens apparatus different from the lens apparatus) is engaged. ¶¶ 60 and 88.).
It would have been obvious to a skilled artisan before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Osawa-Tokunaga with these teachings in Tsukamoto, the rationale being to minimize electrical interference.
Claim 24: the Osawa-Tokunaga-Tsukamoto combination discloses that the image pickup apparatus includes a second communication electrical contact that is used for communication with the lens apparatus and the first lens apparatus, and wherein the plurality of electrical contacts includes an electrical contact that contacts the second communication electrical contact in the state where the first-shaped mount part is directly engaged with the mount part of the image pickup apparatus (Tsukamoto Fig. 6A and 6B; ¶¶ 60 and 88).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT J HANCE whose telephone number is (571)270-5319. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 11:00am-7:00pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Fuelling can be reached at (571) 270-1367. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT J HANCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
Conferees:
/CHARLES R CRAVER/Reexamination Specialist, Art Unit 3992 /M.F/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3992