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 .
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) 1,2,3,5,10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Proctor et al (11,608,951, Proctor).
Regarding claim 1, Proctor discloses a light-emitting device(42), comprising: at least two condensing lenses, connected in sequence(26, Fig. 3), wherein at least one of the condensing lenses forms a group(A, Fig. 3), a partition plate (45) is arranged least one of the condensing lenses(a, Fig. 3), and each group of the at least one of the condensing lenses and two partition plates adjacent to the group of the at least one of the condensing lenses form a chamber(fig. 3); and at least two light sources, wherein at least one of the light sources is arranged in each chamber (a, Fig. 3), and a light beam emitted by the at least one of the light sources is projected towards a corresponding group of the at least one of the condensing lenses and passes through to the outside of a corresponding chamber(claim 9). Proctor does not disclose “wherein in each group of the at least one of the condensing lenses, the number of the at least one of the condensing lenses is set to two or more than two”.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Proctor to have more than one condensing lens connected in sequence within the chamber section, with the single light source, since it has been held that mere duplication of essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art. St. Regis Paper Co. v. Bemis Co., 193 USPQ 8. One of ordinary skill in the lighting art would have recognized that using additional lenses within a specified area, as the chamber sections of Proctor, would have modified the light emitted through the lens(es) according to a desired or predetermined light emission.
Regarding claim 2. wherein the condensing lenses are connected one-by-one to form a ring structure, and the ring structure is configured to receive the light beam along an entire circumference of the ring structure and to project the light beam to the outside of the chamber (A,B, Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 3, wherein each of the light sources comprises a lamp bead, each of the condensing lenses is a convex lens, and an incident surface of each convex lens is perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to a light ray of a corresponding lamp bead (A,B, Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 5, wherein the light-emitting device further comprises a connecting structure, and a side of each partition plate away from the condensing lenses is connected to the connecting structure(44).
Regarding claim 10, wherein each group of the at least one of the condensing lenses forms an arc-shaped structure, sides of each two adjacent partition plates away from the condensing lenses are connected to each other, and each arc-shaped structure and two partition plates adjacent to the arc-shaped structure form a fan-shaped chamber.(A, Fig. 3).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
Claims 4,6-9,11,13,14 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. Proctor et al does not anticipate individually or teach in combination the limitations of claims 4,6-9,11.
Conclusion
Applicant's submission of an information disclosure statement under 37 CFR 1.97(c) with the timing fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(p) on 9/9/2026 prompted the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 609.04(b). 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.
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/ANABEL TON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875
