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 .
Detailed Action
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to the correspondence on 10/22/2025. Applicant’s argument, filed on 10/22/2025 has been entered and carefully considered. Claims 1-10, 12-19 and 21 are pending.
The 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph, rejection is withdrawn based on the arguments/claim amendments submitted on 10/22/2025.
The application filed on 04/11/2024 is a CON of PCT/CN2022/124209 filed on 10/09/2022. Claimed foreign priority to PCTCN2021123141 filed on 10/11/2021. The certified copy of priority has been filed on 04/11/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
This information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/07/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments in the 10/22/2025 Remarks have been fully considered but they are not persuasive because of the following:
Regarding claim, on page 7-9 argues “… first list … second list … first list is independent from the second list”. While the applicant’s argument points are understood, the examiner respectfully disagrees it is because Chen in view of Jung teaches (MPEP 2141.I, “When a work is available in one field of endeavor, design incentives and other market forces can prompt variations of it, either in the same field or a different one. If a person of ordinary skill can implement a predictable variation, §103 likely bars its patentability”, Chen, [0017], Fig. 7-12, teaches, regarding bi-prediction, each list needs to be encoded and decoded, list 0 and list 1 are independent, Chen, [0150]-[0177], teaches, MVD list could be combination of vertical and horizontal or magnitude and sign lists; it is obvious to the ordinary skill in the art that the current scope of the claim is disclosed by the prior arts, so, the rejection is maintained, again, though the rejection is not relied on but for the sake of advancing the prosecution, Xu et al. (US 20200186823 A1, [0130]-[0131], clarifies the obvious two MVP/MVD lists for bi-directional prediction, Zheng et al. (US 20120230392 A1), Fig. Fig. 13-14)).
Therefore, the rejection is maintained.
Examiner’s Note
Claims 1-10, 12-17 refer to "A method for video processing”, Claim 18 refers to "An apparatus for processing video data”, Claim 19 refers to "A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium”, Claim 21 refers to "A method for storing a bitstream of a video”. Claims 18-19 and 21 are similarly rejected in light of rejection of claims 1-10, and 12-17, any obvious combination of the rejection of claims 1-10, and 12-17, or the differences are obvious to the ordinary skill in the art. It is well known in the art that encoding and decoding are reverse processes of video coding method/system. Examiner requests to keep the scope of the independent claims similar for advancing the prosecution.
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.
Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 20210250580 A1), hereinafter Chen, in view of Jung et al. (US 20210014522 A1), hereinafter Jung.
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses a method for video processing, comprising (Abstract): reordering, during a conversion between a current video block of a video and a bitstream of the video ([0130]), candidate signs of a motion vector difference (MVD) for a motion candidate of the current video block; and performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs (Fig. 14, [0058]-[0183]).
Chen discloses all the elements of claim 1 but Chen does not appear to explicitly disclose in the cited section a plurality of candidate signs; wherein a first list of MVD candidates and a second list of MVD candidates for bi-prediction of the current video block, the first list being independent from the second list.
However, Jung from the same or similar endeavor teaches a plurality of candidate signs ([0202]); wherein a first list of MVD candidates and a second list of MVD candidates for bi-prediction of the current video block, the first list being independent from the second list (Fig. 14, [0020], [0031], [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen to incorporate the teachings of Jung to have efficient video signal processing (Jung, [0003]). Similar reasoning/motivation of modification can be applied/extended to the other related/dependent claims.
Regarding claim 2, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the MVD is determined based on one of: advanced motion vector prediction (AMVP), affine AMVP, merge mode with motion vector differences (MMVD), affine MMVD, geometry partition mode with MMVD (GMVD), MMVD for intra block copy (IBC) mode, or MMVD for affine IBC mode (Chen, Fig. 14, [0073], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0202]).
Regarding claim 3, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of candidate signs comprise candidate signs of a horizontal component of the MVD, or wherein the plurality of candidate signs comprise candidate signs of a vertical component of the MVD, or wherein the plurality of candidate signs comprise a plurality of sign combinations, each of the plurality of sign combinations comprises a candidate sign of a horizontal component of the MVD and a candidate sign of a vertical component of the MVD (Chen, Fig. 14, [0102], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0202]).
Regarding claim 4, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of sign combinations are dependent on at least one of: information on whether the horizontal component of the MVD is equal to zero, or information on whether the vertical component of the MVD is equal to zero, or wherein an indication is coded, the indication indicates whether a sign combination at the first position or the second position in the reordered plurality of candidate signs is to be used, or wherein a set of sign combinations at the top N positions in the reordered plurality of candidate signs are indicated in the bitstream with a set of indexes, the set of indexes are coded with a non-fixed length code, where N is an integer, or wherein at least one of the following is coded with a context coding: a candidate sign of the horizontal component of the MVD, or a candidate sign of the vertical component of the MVD, or wherein whether first information is indicated in the bitstream is dependent on a condition, the first information indicates whether a candidate sign at the first position in the reordered plurality of candidate signs is to be used, or wherein a candidate sign at the first position in the reordered plurality of candidate signs is used for performing the conversion (Chen, Fig. 14, [0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0202]).
Regarding claim 5, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein reordering the plurality of candidate signs comprises: reordering the plurality of candidate signs based on a template matching approach, or reordering the plurality of candidate signs based on a bilateral matching approach (Chen, Fig. 14, [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202]).
Regarding claim 6, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 5, wherein reordering the plurality of candidate signs based on a template matching approach comprises: reordering the plurality of candidate signs based on a template matching cost between a current template associated with the current video block and a reference template for the current template (Chen, Fig. 14, [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202]).
Regarding claim 7, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 6, wherein the template matching cost is determined as a sum of absolute difference (SAD) between the current template and the reference template, or wherein the template matching cost is determined as a sum of absolute transformed difference (SATD) between the current template and the reference template, or wherein the template matching cost is determined as a mean removal based sum of absolute difference (MR-SAD) between the current template and the reference template, or wherein the template matching cost is determined as one of: a weighted average of SAD between the current template and the reference template, a weighted average of MR-SAD between the current template and the reference template, or a weighted average of SATD between the current template and the reference template, or wherein a cost function for determining the template matching cost comprises one of: SAD, MR-SAD, SATD, mean-removal SATD (MR-SATD), sum of squared differences (SSD), mean-removal SSD (MR-SSD), sum of squared error (SSE), mean removal sum of squared error (MR-SSE) weighted SAD, weighted MR-SAD, weighted SATD, weighted MR-SATD, weighted SSD, weighted MR-SSD, weighted SSE, weighted MR-SSE, or gradient information (Chen, Fig. 14, [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212]).
Regarding claim 8, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein reordering the plurality of candidate signs comprises: determining prediction costs for the plurality of candidate signs based on a template matching cost or a bilateral matching cost; and reordering the plurality of candidate signs ascendingly based on the prediction costs (Chen, Fig. 14, [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13).
Regarding claim 9, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 8, wherein performing the conversion comprises: obtaining a candidate MVD by combining a candidate sign in the reordered plurality of candidate signs with an absolute MVD value; obtaining a candidate MV by adding the candidate MVD to a predicted MV; and performing the conversion based on the candidate MV, or wherein a target sign used for performing the conversion is a candidate sign with the smallest prediction cost in the reordered plurality of candidate signs, or wherein a target sign used for performing the conversion is selected from a set of candidate signs at the top N positions in the reordered plurality of candidate signs, where N is an integer (Chen, Fig. 14, [0020], [0031], [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13).
Regarding claim 10, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process, or wherein the MVD is determined based on AMVP, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for MMVD, or wherein the MVD is determined based on affine AMVP, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for affine MMVD, or wherein the MVD is determined based on AMVP and affine AMVP, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for MMVD and affine MMVD, or wherein the MVD is determined based on AMVP, affine AMVP and affine MMVD, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for MMVD, or wherein the MVD is determined based on AMVP, affine AMVP and MMVD, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for affine MMVD, or wherein the MVD is determined based on a first coding tool, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for the first coding tool, or wherein the MVD is determined based on an MVD coding tool other than MMVD, and performing the conversion comprises: performing the conversion based on the reordered plurality of candidate signs and an MMVD reordering process for MMVD (Chen, Fig. 14, [0020], [0031], [0165]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13).
Regarding claim 11, (Canceled).
Regarding claim 12, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 11, wherein the first list or the second list is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list is different from the number of MVD candidates in the second list, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list and the number of MVD candidates in the second list are predefined, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list and the number of MVD candidates in the second list are determined on-the-fly, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list and the number of MVD candidates in the second list are indicated in the bitstream, or wherein MVD candidates in the first list being independent from MVD candidates in the second list, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero, or wherein the number of MVD candidates in the first list is zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is non-zero, or wherein the first list is associated with a first reference block for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference block for the current video block, a distance between the first reference block and the current video block is smaller than a distance between the second reference block and the current video block, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero, or wherein the first list is associated with a first reference block for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference block for the current video block, a distance between the first reference block and the current video block is larger than a distance between the second reference block and the current video block, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero (Chen, Fig. 14, [0020], [0031], [0164]-[0166], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 13, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 11, wherein the first list is associated with a first reference direction for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference direction for the current video block, a cost of a first MV of the first reference direction is larger than a cost of a second MV of the second reference direction, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero, or wherein the first list is associated with a first reference direction for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference direction for the current video block, a cost of a first MV of the first reference direction is smaller than a cost of a second MV of the second reference direction, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero (Chen, Fig. 14, [0148], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 14, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the cost of the first MV is a template matching cost of the first MV, or wherein the cost of the first MV is a bilateral matching cost of the first MV (Chen, Fig. 14, [0148], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 15, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 11, wherein the first list is associated with a first reference block for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference block for the current video block, the first reference block is ahead of the current video block, the second reference block is after the current video block, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero, or wherein the first list is associated with a first reference block for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference block for the current video block, the first reference block is after the current video block, the second reference block is ahead of the current video block, the number of MVD candidates in the first list is non-zero and the number of MVD candidates in the second list is zero, or wherein the first list is associated with a first reference block for the current video block, the second list is associated with a second reference block for the current video block, whether the first list or the second list is empty is dependent on a size or an angle of a MV for the first reference block and a size or an angle of a MV for the second reference block, or wherein at least one of the first list or the second list is converted to MVD candidates for uni-prediction of the current video block, or wherein information on whether the first list or the second list is empty is determined based on a rate-distortion (RD) and the information is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein a target MVD pair for performing the conversion comprises a first MVD candidate from the first list and a second MVD candidate from the second list, a position of the first MVD candidate in the first list is different from a position of the second MVD candidate in the second list, or wherein performing the conversion comprises: determining template costs for a plurality of MVD pairs based on the first list and the second list; and performing the conversion based on a target MVD pair with the smallest template cost, or wherein each MVD in a target MVD pair for performing the conversion is determined separately, or wherein a zero MVD is added in to the first list or the second list for MMVD (Chen, Fig. 14, [0148], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 16, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 15, wherein template costs are determined for part of the plurality of MVD pairs, or wherein a template cost is determined for each of MVD candidates in the first list and the second list (Chen, Fig. 14, [0132], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 17, Chen in view of Jung discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the conversion includes encoding the current video block into the bitstream, or wherein the conversion includes decoding the current video block from the bitstream (Chen, Fig. 13-14, [0132], [0058]-[0183], Jung, [0195], [0202], [0212], Fig. 13, 14, 23).
Regarding claim 18-19 and 21, See Examiner’s Note.
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 MOHAMMAD J RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7190. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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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/Mohammad J Rahman/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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