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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species I (claims 1-10) in the reply filed on December 2, 2025 is acknowledged.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the language, “[i]n the present disclosure, a video decoding method is provided […]” in the abstract recites legal phraseology and is requiring the reader to go into the specification for further detail. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
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 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 of this title, 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 & 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Filippov et al. (US 2020/0404257 A1) (hereinafter Filippov) in view of Filippov et al. (US 2018/0262777 A1) (hereinafter Filippov2).
Regarding claim 1, Filippov discloses a video decoding method [Paragraph [0120], decoder], comprising:
obtaining transform coefficient size information on a size of predetermined transform coefficients among transform coefficients of a current block [Paragraph [0137]-[0139] & [0189]-[0199], block size and coefficient groups/positions];
obtaining a sign bit hiding flag indicating whether or not sign bit hiding of the predetermined transform coefficients of the current block is performed; and determining the predetermined transform coefficients according to the size of the predetermined transform coefficients based on the transform coefficient size information and the determined sign of the predetermined transform coefficients [Paragraph [0015] & [0184], Determine whether or not sign data hiding was applied based on conditions and/or information extracted from a bitstream (such as a flag indicating whether or not SBH is allowed)].
However, Filippov does not explicitly disclose determining a sign of the predetermined transform coefficients without obtaining transform coefficient sign information on the sign of the predetermined transform coefficients, when the sign bit hiding flag indicates that the sign bit hiding of the predetermined transform coefficients is performed.
Filippov2 teaches of determining a sign of the predetermined transform coefficients without obtaining transform coefficient sign information on the sign of the predetermined transform coefficients, when the sign bit hiding flag indicates that the sign bit hiding of the predetermined transform coefficients is performed [Paragraph [0097]-[0098], hiding condition can be a comparison of the quantized transform coefficients 112, 308, 313 with a threshold constraint. For example, the hiding condition can comprise the following conditions or other known hiding If this number is above the threshold, the hiding condition is true];
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Filippov to add the teachings of Filippov2 as above, to improve the encoding and decoding in terms of signaling mechanism so as to keep the signaling overhead low. (Filippov2, Paragraph [0029]).
Regarding claims 6, video encoding method claim (6) limitations similar and reciprocal to the video decoding method claims 1 of the same. Therefore, video encoding method claim 6 corresponds to video decoding method claims 1, respectively, and are rejected for the similar reasons of obviousness as discussed above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 7-10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The various claimed limitations mentioned in the claims are not taught or suggested by the prior art taken either singly or in combination, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-5707. The examiner can normally be reached M-Sa, 12PM - 10 PM.
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/DANIEL CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487