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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on November 13, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed November 13, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s amendments which state operations for scaling a motion vector are not performed regardless of a picture order count value does not further limit the claims and provide no new context. It is established by definition that the spatial motion vectors are non-scaled. The arguments provided by the examiner in the advisory action mailed on November 26, 2025 remain unchanged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-19 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by (2012/0236941, provided by applicant) [Lin].
Regarding claims 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, and 16, Lin discloses a method of video decoding, comprising:
obtaining a coding block from a video signal (fig. 1);
obtaining a plurality of spatial neighboring blocks based on the coding block, wherein the plurality of spatial neighboring blocks comprise multiple left spatial neighboring blocks and multiple above spatial neighboring blocks (also shown in fig. 1, Ao..n, Bo..n, C, D, E);
determining up to one left non-scaled spatial motion vector predictor (MVP) candidate based on the multiple left spatial neighboring blocks (from left blocks, paragraph 0046); and
determining up to one above non-scaled spatial MVP candidate based on the multiple above spatial neighboring blocks (from top blocks, paragraph 0046);
wherein in a process of determining the up to one left non-scaled spatial MVP candidate and the up to one above non-scaled spatial MVP candidate, operations for scaling a motion vector are not performed regardless of whether a picture order count (POC) of a reference picture of one of the plurality of spatial neighboring blocks is the same as or different from the POC of a reference picture of the coding block (scaling only performed for temporal candidates, not spatial candidates, paragraph 0048);
deriving an MPV candidate list based on the up to one left non-scaled MVP and the up to one above non-scaled MVP (in the event matches are found from the initial reference picture, paragraph 0048);
receiving an index indicating an MVP in the MVP candidate list (paragraph 0037); and
obtaining a prediction signal of the coding block based on the MPV indicated by the index (paragraph 0030).
Regarding claims 3, 10, and 17, Lin discloses the method, device, and computer readable storage medium of claims 1, 8, and 15, wherein the plurality of spatial neighboring blocks comprise a below left block, a left block, an above right block, an above block, and an above left block (shown in fig. 1 of Lin, Ao..n, Bo..n, C, D, E).
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, Lin discloses the method, device, and computer readable medium of claims 2, 9, and 16, further comprising obtaining an explicit flag indicating whether a collocated picture used for temporal motion vector prediction is derived from a first reference picture list or a second reference picture list (reference list, Lin paragraph 0054).
Regarding claims 5, 12, and 19, Lin discloses the method, device, and computer readable medium of claims 4, 11, and 18, further comprising obtaining a collocated reference index specifying a reference index of the collocated picture used for temporal motion vector prediction (selects from index marked as '1' first before trying any other reference pictures, Lin paragraph 0054).
Regarding claims 6 and 13, Lin discloses the method, device, and computer readable medium of claims 2, 9, and 16, wherein obtaining up to one MVP from the temporal collocated blocks comprises performing motion vector scaling on an MVP derived from the temporal collocated blocks (Lin, paragraph 0048).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Lin discloses the method and device of claims 6 and 13, wherein the motion vector scaling is performed based on a picture order count (POC) difference between a reference picture of a current picture and the current picture, and POC difference between a reference picture of a collocated picture and the collocated picture (Lin paragraph 0056).
Regarding claim 21, Lin discloses the method of claim 2, wherein deriving the MVP candidate list comprises: pruning, when there are two identical MVP candidates derived from the plurality of spatial neighboring blocks, one of the two identical MVP candidates from the MVP candidate list (where a MV identical to the left predictor is not include in the list, Lin paragraph 0048); and obtaining up to two MVs equal to 0 (wherein up to two includes obtaining no MVs equal to zero), wherein the temporal collocated blocks comprise a bottom-right collocated block TO and a central collocated block T1 (see Lin Fig. 13, Tctr, and TRB).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOMINIC D SALTARELLI whose telephone number is (571)272-7302. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan Flynn can be reached at (571) 272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DOMINIC D SALTARELLI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421