DETAILED ACTION
In response to the amendment filed on 06/29/2026, all the amendments to the claims have been entered and the action follows:
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 § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 11, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 2024/0135734).
Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses:
obtaining first modal data; obtaining a first modal data feature by performing feature extraction based on the first modal data (see [5], [90], and fig 4, extracting image features from an input image); and
obtaining second modal data based on the first modal data feature and a cross-modal processing model (see [91] and fig 4, obtaining a corresponding text that best matches the image features and an identifier),
the first modal data and the second modal data having different modalities (see para [90]-[91], the corresponding text is in text form, which is of a different modality from the input image), wherein
the cross-modal processing model is pre-trained based on a concatenated training sample, and the concatenated training sample comprises a concatenated image sample and a corresponding concatenated text sample (see [63] and [85], wherein the identifier is pre-trained based on a plurality of images and corresponding texts; and see [74]-[78], the plurality of images and corresponding texts are concatenated into batch size chunks), and
the concatenated training sample is obtained by concatenating, for each training image-text pair of a batch, at least one other training image-text pair in a same batch (see [74]-[78], wherein the concatenated plurality of images and corresponding texts are obtained by concatenating multiple pairs of corresponding images and texts (e.g., pairs A-1 and B-3 concatenated in the same batch)).
Regarding claims 11 and 20, Kim discloses everything claimed as applied above (see rejection of claim 1; and see Kim [116]-[118], a computer).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10 and 12-29 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:
Regarding claim 2, Kim further discloses:
obtaining the concatenated training sample, wherein the training sample comprises the concatenated image sample and the corresponding concatenated text sample (see [74]-[78], the plurality of images and corresponding texts used for pre-training the identifier are concatenated into batch size chunks).
However, Kim does not disclose: obtaining a concatenated image feature with time information by performing feature extraction based on the concatenated image sample, and obtaining a concatenated text feature with a temporal sequence relationship by performing feature extraction based on the text sample; obtaining a multi-modal feature by performing fusing based on the concatenated image feature and the concatenated text feature; and pre-training the initial model based on the concatenated image sample, the concatenated text sample, and the multi-modal feature. Similar reasons apply to claim 12.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06/29/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that claims 1, 11, and 20 are allowable since the previously deemed allowable subject matter of claim 3 has been incorporated into these claims.
The examiner respectfully disagrees because claim 1 does not include the limitations of intervening claim 2, which claim 3 is and previously was dependent upon. Furthermore, Kim discloses the newly added limitation of claim 1 as recited in the rejection above, while the applicant does not provide any specific arguments regarding why Kim does not disclose the new subject matter of claim 1. For these reasons, the rejection is maintained. Similar reasons apply to claims 11 and 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 SJ PARK whose telephone number is (571)270-3569. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, EMILY TERRELL can be reached at 571-270-3717. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SJ Park/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2675
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