DETAILED ACTION
This examination is in response to the communication filed on 09/06/2026. Claims 1-14 are currently pending, where claims 1, 9 and 14 are independent.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/06/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
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.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. §101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claims recite “a first and a second submodel…”. Under a broadest reasonable interpretation “submodel” encompasses software per se unless explicitly defined otherwise in the application a filed. In the present case, the specification states that the application may be implemented “as software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof”.
The Examiner notes that although the preamble references a filter bank, it is not recited as part of the claimed system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-13 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding independent claims 1 and 9, the closest prior art record, e.g., Huang et al cited in the IDS filed on 01/07/2025 and Jiang et al, teach methods for reconstructing an audio signal, specifically high-band audio using a neural network based a low-band signal and HFR parameters (side information). However, neither reference teaches or suggest that the neural network comprising a processing layer, trained to generate conditioning information for the current sample based on quantized samples of the filter bank domain low-band signal and said HFR parameters as recited in claims 1 and 9. To the contrary, the prior of record only teaches using the neural network to generate the high-band samples and then processing the generated samples using the side information.
Regarding dependent claims 2-8 and 10-13 depend from independent claim 1 or 9 and therefore are allowable for at least those reasons presented above with respect to claims 1 and 9.
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.”
Claim 14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding independent claim 14, the closest prior art record, e.g., EP 3920182A1 and WO 2020/221846 cited in the IDS filed on 01/07/2025, teach neural networks for reconstructing an audio signal, specifically high-band audio using a low-band signal and HFR parameters (side information). However, neither reference teaches or suggest that the neural network comprising a first and second submodel, each submodel including: a processing layer, trained to generate conditioning information for the current sample, and an output layer subdivided into a plurality of sequentially executed sub-layers, each sub-layer being trained to generate a subset of values of the current sample, given the conditioning information from the processing layer and on samples generated by any previously executed sub-layers.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PENNY L CAUDLE whose telephone number is (703)756-1432. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8:00 am to 5:00 pm eastern.
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/PENNY L CAUDLE/Examiner, Art Unit 2657
/DANIEL C WASHBURN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2657
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