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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/19/26 has been entered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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.
Claim(s) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2015/0163494 A1 (“Park”) in view of WO 2020/0236991 A1 (“Chen”) (Note: Chen was previously attached).
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses a method of decoding an image, comprising:
dividing, based on a predetermined division line (e.g. see partition line, e.g. see at least 600 in Fig. 6), a current block in the image into a plurality of partitions, the plurality of partitions including a first partition and a second partition (e.g. see two partitions, e.g. see at least partitions 610 and 620 in Fig. 6, paragraph [0060]), at least one of the first partition or the second partition having a triangular shape (e.g. see partition 620 in Fig. 6 has triangular shape);
constructing a merge candidate list of the current block (e.g. see Fig. 7 illustrating merging candidates that may be selected, paragraphs [0079]-[0080], for example, with maximum number of merging candidates of 6 (see paragraph [0082]) or 5 (see paragraph [0083]) or two (see paragraph [0084])), the merge candidate list of the current block being shared by the first partition and the second partition (e.g. see maximum number of merging candidates, e.g. two or more, for the current unit, e.g. see at least paragraphs [0086]-[0087], e.g. see merging candidates A and B shown in Figs. 13 (and Fig. 17), are shared);
deriving motion information for the current block (e.g. see prediction information (e.g., the reference index, the motion vector, the prediction direction etc.), e.g. see at least paragraphs [0034], [0071]-[0072]) based on the merge candidate list (e.g. see maximum number of merging candidates, e.g. two or more, e.g. see at least paragraphs [0086]-[0087], e.g. see merging candidates A and B shown in Figs. 13 (and Fig. 17, paragraphs [0110]-[0111]), are shared)); and
performing inter prediction on the current block (e.g. see inter prediction, e.g. see at least paragraph [0065]) based on the motion information (e.g. see prediction information (e.g., the reference index, the motion vector, the prediction direction etc.), e.g. see at least paragraphs [0034], [0071]-[0072]).
Although Park discloses the first partition and deriving motion information, it is noted Park differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose wherein the first partition is restricted to have only motion information for uni-prediction, and wherein the motion information for the uni-prediction is determined based on one of L0 motion information or L1 motion information of a first merge candidate in the merge candidate list. Chen however, teaches wherein the first partition is restricted to have only motion information for uni-prediction (e.g. see uni-prediction, paragraphs [0085]-[0087]), and wherein the motion information for the uni-prediction is determined based on one of L0 motion information or L1 motion information of a first merge candidate in the merge candidate list (e.g. see L0 or L1 in Fig. 10, paragraphs [0085]-[0087]).
Therefore, given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the references of Park and Chen before him/her, to modify the Method and apparatus for processing a video signal of Park with the teachings of Chen in order to improve coding efficiency.
Regarding claim 2, Park further discloses wherein the division line is determined based on division information obtained (e.g. see the way one unit has been partitioned indicated by prediction unit type or partition type information, e.g. see at least paragraph [0057]) from a bitstream (e.g. see bitstream, e.g. see at least paragraphs [0044], [0055]), and wherein the division information indicates an angle of the division line and a distance from a center of the current block to the division line (e.g. see partition information expressed as a distance from the center and an angle between a perpendicular line from the center to the partition line and the basic axis as shown in Fig. 6, e.g. see at least paragraph [0060]).
Regarding claim 3, Park further discloses wherein the current block is divided into the plurality of partitions when the current block is no longer divided into smaller coding blocks through a tree-based block division (e.g. see leaf node of the coding unit tree, e.g. see at least paragraph [0057]).
Regarding claim 4, Park further discloses wherein the tree-based block division includes at least one of a quad-tree division, a binary-tree division or a ternary-tree division (e.g. see quad tree, e.g. see at least paragraph [0053]).
Regarding claim 5, Park in view of Chen further teaches wherein whether the motion information for the uni-prediction is determined based on the L0 motion information is determined based on whether a first merge index of the first partition for indicating the first merge candidate is even (Chen: e.g. see merge index in Fig. 10, paragraphs [0085]-[0087]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 6, Park in view of Chen further teaches wherein when the first merge index of the first partition is even, the motion information for the uni-prediction is determined based on the L0 motion information of the first merge candidate, and wherein when the first merge index of the first partition is odd, the motion information for the uni-prediction is determined based on the L1 motion information of the first merge candidate (Chen: e.g. see merge index value, L0 and L1 in Fig. 10, paragraphs [0085]-[0087]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claims 7-8, the claims recite analogous limitations to the claims above and are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 2/19/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts on pages 7-9 of the Remarks that claim 1 is “fully supported by the priority application KR 10-2018-0120959, which precedes the earliest filing date of Chen” because the “’motion vector prediction candidates’ and ‘candidate (specified by an index)’ of the priority application correspond to ‘merge candidate list’ and ‘a first merge candidate’ of claim 1.”
However, the examiner respectfully disagrees. It is noted that, in the video compression art area, the term “motion vector prediction candidates” as the name suggests is a broad term that is understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art to refer to candidates that are used for motion vector prediction. The term is broad or generic in that the term “motion vector prediction candidates” covers many different types of motion vector prediction candidates such as temporal motion vector prediction TMVP candidates, spatial MVP candidates, advanced MVP or AMVP candidates, etc. as a PHOSITA would understand and recognize. Thus, the disclosure of the priority application KR 10-2018-0120959 seems too broad to provide support for very specific claim limitations such as “merge candidate list”.
Therefore, the term “motion vector prediction candidates” does not correspond to a specific term “merge candidate list”, and it follows too that “candidate (specified by an index)” does not correspond to “a first merge candidate” because “candidate (specified by an index)” is in the context of MVP candidates not specific to merge candidates.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20200288150 A1, Jun et al., METHOD AND DEVICE FOR IMAGE ENCODING/DECODING ON BASIS OF ASYMMETRIC SUB-BLOCK
US 20210352334 A1, Lim et al., APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR VIDEO ENCODING OR DECODING
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/Francis Geroleo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619