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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 June 3, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pp.6-9, filed April 27, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of independent claim(s) 1, 7, and 12 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2) and 35 U.S.C. § 103 regarding US Pub. No. 2025/0008130 and US Pub. No. 20060268841 not disclosing/teaching splitting bitstream/substreams into plurality of data packets based on a preset split length of N bits, wherein each of the plurality of data packets only comprises the identifier stored in a data header of a length of M bits and a data subject of a length of N-M bits, wherein N and M are fixed positive integers and N is greater than M, have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly considered prior art.
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, 3, 5-8, 10-12, 14, 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sparano (US 2025/0008130) in view of Sasaki et al. (US 2010/0254679).
Regarding claim 1 Sparano discloses a decoding method, comprising:
obtaining a bitstream (stream data 205 in Figure 2A);
obtaining a plurality of data packets based on the bitstream (at a decoding device, different packet sub-streams are received and parsed based on packet identifiers – [0030]; each packet of sub-streams comprises a header and a data payload – [0053]), comprising:
splitting the bitstream into a the plurality of data packets having a length of N bits, wherein lengths of the data packets are the same and equal to N bits (Figure 1 shows Transport Stream (TS) 102 that comprises a sequence of fixed-length TS packets 110);
sending, based on identifiers of the plurality of data packets, the plurality of data packets to a plurality of entropy decoders for parallel decoding, to obtain a plurality of syntax elements (at a decoding device, different packet sub-streams are received and parsed based on packet identifiers – [0030]; parallel decoding – [0042]), wherein each of the plurality of data packets only comprises the identifier and a data subject (TS 102 comprises a sequence of fixed-length TS packets 110. Each TS packet has a header which includes one or more data fields; one data field may provide a Packet Identifier (PID). Note each of the TS packets 110 include a header 112 and a payload. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, the information besides the identifier is being considered as the data subject); and
restoring media content based on the plurality of syntax elements (Display Output Compositor 230 displays decoded video data – Figures 2A and 3).
Examiner’s Note: The priority applications provide support for the rejection above.
However, Sparano is silent on splitting the bitstream into a plurality of data packets based on a preset split length of N bits and wherein each of the plurality of data packets comprises the identifier stored in a data header of a length of M bits and a data subject of a length of N-M bits, wherein N and M are fixed positive integers and N is greater than M.
In his disclosure Sasaki teaches splitting the bitstream into a plurality of data packets based on a preset split length of N bits and wherein each of the plurality of data packets comprises the identifier stored in a data header of a length of M bits and a data subject pf a length of N-M bits, wherein N and M are fixed positive integers and N is greater than M (In Figure 5B, each TS packet 501 is a 188 byte long packet; each TS packet 501 includes at least one of a TS payload 501P and a TS header 501H; 501P and 501A fields make up a 184-byte length data area; TS header 501H is a four-byte long data area – [0144]; Figure 5A shows the structure of header 501H which contains identifier information – [0145]).
It would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the packet with a preset split length and a data header of another length as in Sasaki into the teachings of Sparano because it is known in the art for a data packet to contain a payload and a header to have corresponding lengths.
Regarding claim 3 Sparano discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the restoring media content based on the plurality of syntax elements comprises: dequantizing the plurality of syntax elements to obtain a plurality of residuals; and predicting and reconstructing the plurality of residuals to restore the media content (Figure 8 shows reconstruction of media content by dequantizing and predicting residuals of the media content).
Regarding claim 5 Sparano discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises a data header and a data subject, and the data header is used to store the identifier of the data packet (Each TS packet has a header and a payload, the header includes a packet identifier PID – [0032]).
Regarding claim 6 Sparano discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein lengths of the plurality of data packets are the same (Transport Stream 102 comprises a sequence of fixed-length 188-byte TS packets – [0032]).
In regards to claim 7, any decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that is present in a decoder/decoding process also necessarily needs to be present, in substantially identical form in a corresponding encoder/encoding process. The description of encoder technologies can be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies.
It is noted Sparano further discloses predicting media content to obtain a plurality of pieces of predicted data; quantizing the plurality of pieces of predicted data to obtain a plurality of syntax elements based on media content (Figure 7 shows an encoding system in which residual data is obtained, transformed, quantized and encoded; it is noted that a person with ordinary skill in the art in video coding would know that (1) in order to obtained a residual signal predicted data must be obtained and (2) during the encoding process a series of syntax are created/obtained that are related to said encoding process).
Regarding claim 8 Sparano discloses the method according to claim 7, wherein the interleaving the plurality of substreams into a bitstream comprises:
obtaining the bitstream based on the plurality of data packets (encoded video data in Figure 1).
In regards to claim 10, any decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that is present in a decoder also necessarily needs to be present, in substantially identical form in a corresponding encoder. The description of encoder technologies can be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies. Therefore, claim 10 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 5.
In regards to claim 11, any decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that is present in a decoder also necessarily needs to be present, in substantially identical form in a corresponding encoder. The description of encoder technologies can be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies. Therefore, claim 11 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 6.
Claim 12 corresponds to the decoding apparatus that performs the method of claim 1. Therefore, claim 12 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 14 corresponds to the decoding apparatus that performs the method of claim 3. Therefore, claim 14 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 3.
Claim 16 corresponds to the decoding apparatus that performs the method of claim 5. Therefore, claim 16 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 5.
Claim 17 corresponds to the decoding apparatus that performs the method of claim 6. Therefore, claim 17 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 6.
Claim(s) 2 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sparano (US 2025/0008130) in view of Sasaki et al. (US 2010/0254679) further in view of Gruneberg et al. (US 2019/0098348).
Regarding claim 2 Sparano discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the sending, based on identifiers of the plurality of data packets, the plurality of data packets to a plurality of entropy decoders for decoding, to obtain a plurality of syntax elements comprises:
determining, based on the identifiers of the plurality of data packets, a substream to which each of the plurality of data packets belongs (at a decoding device, different packet sub-streams are received and parsed based on packet identifiers – [0030]; a Packet Identifier (PID) is provided, the PID is used to distinguish different sub-streams within the Transport Stream; the PID may be used to identify different video streams that are multiplexed together into a single stream that forms the Transport Stream – [0032]).
Sparano further discloses sending each data packet of the substream to an entropy decoder to obtain the plurality of syntax elements (Figures 2A, 2C, 3).
However, fails to explicitly disclose sending each data packet to a decoding buffer of the substream to which the data packet belongs; and sending a data packet in each decoding buffer to an entropy decoder corresponding to the buffer for decoding, to obtain the plurality of syntax elements.
In the disclosure Gruneberg teaches sending each data packet to a decoding buffer of the substream to which the data packet belongs; and sending a data packet in each decoding buffer to an entropy decoder corresponding to the buffer for decoding, to obtain the plurality of syntax elements (Figure 4 shows a plurality of transport buffers that receive packets of ES if its PID matches the value that is found in the PMT for a certain ES – [0139]).
It would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Gruneberg into the teachings of Sparano because such incorporation improves the broadcast streaming process.
Claim 13 corresponds to the decoding apparatus that performs the method of claim 2. Therefore, claim 13 is being rejected on the same basis as claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIA E VAZQUEZ COLON whose telephone number is (571)270-1103. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 AM-3:30 PM.
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/MARIA E VAZQUEZ COLON/Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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