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 .
Status of Claims
2. This is a final action on the merits in response to the reply received 10/16/2025.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Zhang fails as prior art. The examiner respectfully disagrees. Zhang discloses the limitations in priority document, dated 9/8/2023, in [0110-0125]. Therefore, rejection is maintained.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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Claims 1, 18, and 20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 8, 15, and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11647201 (17699731) in view of US 20230396764 A1-Zhang et al (Hereinafter referred to as “Zhang”).
Referring to claims 1, 18 and 20 (claim 1 is the decoding method), taking claim 1 as exemplary, although conflicting application 17699731, does not explicitly disclose what’s claimed in instant application 18278790, wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block.
However, Zhang discloses wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block ([0149], wherein 6 4x4 block is 96 samples. [0088] discloses a 16x16 block)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify method disclosed by instant application 18278790 to disclose wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block as taught by Zhang, to provide better compression ([0090], Zhang).
All dependent claims are rejected for being dependent on a DP rejected independent claim.
Claims 1, 18, and 20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-3 of U.S. Patent No. 122735530 (18442750) in view of US 20230396764 A1-Zhang et al (Hereinafter referred to as “Zhang”).
Referring to claims 1, 18 and 20 (claim 1 is the decoding method), taking claim 1 as exemplary, although conflicting application 18442750, does not explicitly disclose what’s claimed in instant application 18278790, wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block.
However, Zhang discloses wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block ([0149], wherein 6 4x4 block is 96 samples. [0088] discloses a 16x16 block)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify method disclosed by instant application 18278790 to disclose wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block as taught by Zhang, to provide better compression ([0090], Zhang).
All dependent claims are rejected for being dependent on a DP rejected independent claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1-18, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20200396455 A1-Liu et al (Hereinafter referred to as “Liu”), in view of US 20230396764 A1-Zhang et al (Hereinafter referred to as “Zhang”).
Regarding claim 1, Liu discloses a method for image decoding, the method performed by a decoding apparatus and comprising:
receiving residual information for a target block from a bitstream ([0111], wherein receiving residual information;[0161], wherein residual residual information) ;
deriving transform coefficients for the target block based on the residual information ([0114], wherein extracting dequantized transform coefficients based on the residual information provided to the residue decoder; [0161], forward transform coefficients are generated based on the residual);
deriving modified transform coefficients based on inverse secondary transform for the transform coefficients ([0162], wherein inverse secondary transform can be performed over coefficients. The examiner notes that inverse transform generates the modified transform);
deriving residual samples for the target block based on inverse primary transform for the modified transform coefficients ([0162], wherein after the inverse secondary transform can be processed with an inverse primary transform to obtain a recovered residual block); and
generating a reconstructed picture based on the residual samples of the target block ([0115], wherein the reconstructed module is configured to combine the residual to form a reconstructed block that apart of the reconstructed picture; ,
wherein, modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block ([0169], wherein coefficients are produced only in the top-left region of a target block).
Liu fails to disclose wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhang discloses wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block ([0149], wherein 6 4x4 block is 96 samples. [0088] discloses a 16x16 block)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify method disclosed by Liu to disclose wherein, based on that a size of the target block is MxN (M>=16, N>=16), L (48 < L <= 96) modified transform coefficients are arranged in an output area at an upper left of the target block as taught by Zhang, to provide better compression ([0090], Zhang).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the deriving the modified transform coefficients comprises: deriving an input array by sorting the transform coefficients according to a forward diagonal scanning order ([0177], wherein the transform process generally sorts higher frequency data toward the top left and lower frequency data toward the bottom right); deriving a larger number of modified transform coefficients than the transform coefficients through a matrix operation of the input array and a transform kernel ([0143]); arranging the modified transform coefficients in the output area (Fig. 21-22; [0149-0150]; wherein the modified transform coefficients are arranged in the output area based on an order of either row-first direction or column-first direction according to an intra prediction mode of the target block (Fig 21-22).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the output area is composed of a plurality of 4x4 sub-blocks which can be arranged in a scanning order from the DC position of the target block ([0149], fig 21, plurality of 4x4 blocks).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the output area is composed of a plurality of pxq sub-blocks which can be arranged in a predetermined order from the DC position of the target block ([0149], fig. 21).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the output area is an mxn block (m<=M, n<=N) at a top left target block (fig. 21).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the output area comprises a fan-shaped area composed of lines spaced apart from the DC position of the target block by a same distance (fig 20-22).
Regarding claim 7. (Original) The method of claim 2, wherein the input array includes R transform coefficients, wherein R is a multiple of 16 smaller than L ([0148-0149]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the input array is sorted in units of 4x4 sub- blocks which can be arranged in the forward diagonal scanning order from the DC position of the target block and sorted according to the forward diagonal scanning order within the 4x4 sub- block (Fig 20-22; ([0177], wherein the transform process generally sorts higher frequency data toward the top left and lower frequency data toward the bottom right).
Regarding claim 9, Liu discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the deriving the modified transform coefficients comprises deriving the transform kernel to be applied to the secondary transform ([0205]), wherein the transform kernel is derived based on a transform set derived based on an intra prediction mode applied to the target block (Fig. 25), wherein the transform set exists in plural based on a mapping relationship with the intra prediction mode ([00205-0206]), and one transform set is composed of a plurality of transform kernels ([0206], transform kernel types), wherein a size of the inverse secondary transform is set based on the size of the target block ([0167], wherein the inverse transform is based on the forward transform which include the target block), wherein at least one of a number of transform sets, a number of transform kernels constituting the transform set and a dimension of a transform kernel is derived based on the size of the inverse secondary transform ([0168-0170]).
Regarding claim 10, Liu discloses the method of claim 9, wherein, based on that both a horizontal length and a vertical length of the target block are greater than or equal to 4, and a horizontal length or a vertical length is 4, the size of the inverse secondary transform is set to a first value( Fig 28A), wherein, based on that both a horizontal length and a vertical length of the target block are greater than or equal to 8, and a horizontal length or a vertical length is 8, the size of the inverse secondary transform is set to a second value (Fig 28A), wherein, based on that both a horizontal length and a vertical length of the target block are greater than or equal to 16, the size of the inverse secondary transform is set to a third value (Fig 28A).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang discloses the method of claim 10, wherein, based on the size of the inverse secondary transform being the first value, the dimension of the transform kernel is set to 16x16 ([0135]), wherein, based on the size of the inverse secondary transform being the second value, the dimension of the transformation kernel is set to 48xR or 64xS, where the R is any one of 16, 32, 48, the S is any one of 16, 32, 48, 64 ([0143]), wherein, based on the size of the inverse secondary transform being the third value, the dimension of the transformation kernel is set to any one of 96xR, 64xS or 48xT, where the R is any one of 16, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, the S is any one of 16, 32, 48, 64, the T is any one of 16, 32, 48 ([0149]).
Regarding claim 12, Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein any one of DST-7, DCT-8 or Karhunen Loeve Transform (KLT) is applied to the inverse primary transform(Fig 14).
Regarding claim 13, Liu discloses the method of claim 12, wherein the deriving the modified transform coefficients comprises deriving a transform kernel to be applied to the secondary transform ([0205]), wherein the transform kernel is derived based on a transform set derived based on an intra prediction mode applied to the target block (Fig. 25), wherein the transform set exists in plural based on a mapping relationship with the intra prediction mode ([00205-0206]), and one transform set is composed of a plurality of transform kernels ([0206], transform kernel types); wherein a size of the inverse secondary transform is set based on the size of the target block ([0167], wherein the inverse transform is based on the forward transform which include the target block), wherein at least one of a number of transform sets, a number of transform kernels constituting the transform set and a dimension of a transform kernel is derived based on the size of the inverse secondary transform ([0168-0170]).
Regarding claim 14, Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the inverse primary transform includes a horizontal transform and a vertical transform (Fig 15), and wherein a transform skip is applied to the horizontal transform or the vertical transform ([0156] and [0171]).
Regarding claim 15, Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises deriving prediction samples for the target block based on an inter prediction ([0092]).
Regarding claim 16, Liu discloses the method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises receiving information for a transform index applied to the inverse secondary transform ([0158]), wherein the transform index is received when a transform coefficient exists in a specific area of the target block ([0172]), and wherein the specific area is set based on the size of the inverse secondary transform ([0171-0172]).
Regarding claim 17, Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein, based on a tree type of the target block being a single tree, the inverse secondary transform is performed on luma component and chroma component of the target block ([0172]).
Regarding claim 18, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 1 and are applicable for claim 18 (encoding performs the opposite of decoding).
Regarding claim 20, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 1 and are applicable for claim 20.
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 LERON BECK whose telephone number is (571)270-1175. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Czekaj can be reached at (571) 272-7327. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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LERON . BECK
Examiner
Art Unit 2487
/LERON BECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487