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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 06/04/2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
Specifically it appears that the single foreign patent documents was not submitted in entirety and is missing the required information for consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because a “program” is not a statutory class. When amending the claim please note the Official Gazette notice below.
The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2.
A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se. The limited situations in which such an amendment could raise issues of new matter occur, for example, is when the specification does not support a non-transitory embodiment because a signal per se is the only viable embodiment such that the amended claim is impermissibly broadened beyond the supporting disclosure. See, e.g., Gentry Gallery, Inc. v. Berkline Corp., 134 F.3d 1473 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
For additional information, please see the Official Gazette notice published February 23, 2010 (1351 OG 212).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 are allowed.
Regarding claim 1, no prior art could be located that teaches or fairly suggests processor controls the lens optical system such that operation sensitivity that is a ratio of an amount of change in the state of the lens optical system to an operation amount of the actuation operation input to the at least one operation member changes according to a difference between a storage state that is a state of the lens optical system and is stored in the at least one memory in advance and a current state that is a current state of the lens optical system, in combination with the rest of the limitations of the claim.
Claims 2-7 depend on claim 1 and therefore are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Pub. No. 20250287097 – directed to a focus sensitivity as ratio between a unit moving amount of a focus lens and a change amount in an imaging position
U.S. Pub. No. 20220082904 and Pat. No. 11841603 – directed to imaging control information may be related to, for example, the F number and focus sensitivity (ratio of the moving amount of the image plane to the moving amount of the focus lens unit 104) in addition to the focal distance
U.S. Pub. No. 20210120182 and Pat. No. 11330185 – directed to data stored in a memory that includes data indicating a relationship between an object distance and positions of a first focus lens and a second focus lens which provide an in-focus state, data indicating a relationship between the object distance and focus sensitivities (first focus sensitivity and second focus sensitivity) each indicating a ratio of a moving amount of an image plane to a unit distance of each of the first focus lens and the second focus lens, and data indicating a relationship between the object distance and a correction limit value of the second focus lens.
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/NICHOLAS G GILES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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