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 .
Summary
2. This office action for US Patent application 18/790,588 is responsive to communications filed on 11/25/2025, in response to the Non-Final Rejection of 08/27/2025. Claims 16 and 17 have been cancelled. Claim 18 has been amended. New claims 22 and 23 have been added. Currently, claims 1-15, 18-23 are pending and are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
3. In response to communication filed on 11/25/2025, the claim objections with respect to claims 16 and 17 have been withdrawn in view of the amendment and remarks.
4. Applicant's Remarks see pages 10-13, with respect to the amendment and argument have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, 35 U.S.C 102/103 rejections have been withdrawn.
5. Applicant's amendment has introduced claim language that has resulted in additional rejections. Please see the new grounds of rejection presented below.
Claim Objections
6. Amended claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 18 recites “A decoding device……, a method comprising..” in the claim. The claim is indefinite and unclear since it attempts to claim both a device and a method. The claim may describe either a device or a method. Applicant is reminded that the claim cannot fall under two different statutory categories.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
7. 35 U.S.C. § 101 reads as follows:
b. Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
8. New claims 21 and 22 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C § 101 because the claimed inventions are directed to non-statutory subject matter as follow.
Claims 21 and 22 recite "a computer program product". However, data structures (e.g., software, program, etc.) not claimed as embodied in a statutory computer-readable media are descriptive material per se and are not statutory because they are not capable of causing functional change in the computer. See, e.g., Warmerdam, 33 F.3d at 1361, 31 USPQ2d at 1760 (claim to a data structure per se held nonstatutory). Such claimed data structures do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the data structure and other claimed aspects of the invention which permit the data structure's functionality to be realized (MPEP2106.01.1).
Allowable Subject Matter
9. Claims 1-15, 19-20 are allowed.
10. Claims 18, 21-22 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 and claim objections.
11. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: A decoding method, comprising: predicting, when a multi-reference line prediction mode is enabled for a current block, the current block based on a target reference line when the current block is predicted according to the multi-reference line prediction mode, wherein the target reference line is determined based on reference line indication information;
wherein the reference line indication information is configured to indicate index information of the target reference line used in predicting the current block based on the multi-reference line prediction mode, and the target reference line is one line selected from candidate reference lines, wherein the number of the candidate reference lines corresponding to the multi-reference line prediction mode is 3, and three lines and three columns closest to a boundary of the current block are used as the candidate reference lines; and the reference line indication information occupies at most 2 bits, and the 2 bits are decoded using a first context model and a second context model, wherein a first bit of the reference line indication information is decoded based on the first context model, a second bit of the reference line indication information is decoded based on the second context model when decoding of the second bit of the reference line indication information is required, and the first context model is different from the second context model.
The prior art(s) fails to explicitly disclose, suggest or teach the combination of the limitations as recited above, when considered as a whole. The combination of above limitations as presented distinguish the independent claims over the prior art(s), rendering it for allowance. No strong motivation is found to combine the prior arts of the record to teach the combination of said limitations.
Most Pertinent Prior Art(s):
ALBRECHT ET AL: "Description of SOR, HOR and 360° video coding technology proposal by Fraunhofer HHI", 122. MPEG MEETING; 20 April 2018)
Chang et al., (US 2019/0306494A1)
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
12. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new ground (s) of rejection presented in this office action. Accordingly, 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 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 extension fee 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.
13. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ON MUNG whose telephone number is (571) 270-7557 and whose direct farelax number is (571) 270-8557. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri, 9am - 6pm (ET).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jamie Atala can be reached on (571)272-7384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ON S MUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486