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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on July 10, 2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the Examiner.
Applicant(s) Response to Official Action
The response filed on June 22, 2026 has been entered and made of record. Claim 1 - 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20 and 21 have been cancelled. Claims 13, 16 and 19 have been amended. Accordingly, claims 13, 16 and 19 are currently pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s submitted Amendments to the Specification have overcome the objection previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed December 22, 2025. Accordingly, the objection is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection of claims under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CAI et al. (US 2022/0166986 A1) in view of CHIANG et al. (US 2022/0224891 A1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of the newly discovered reference to determining that the current chroma block is predicted in a Direct Mode Intra Block Copy mode (DM_IBC mode); checking N predetermined positions within a previously reconstructed corresponding luma area in a predefined order to retrieve a luma block predicted in a Intra Block Copy (IBC) mode, wherein N is a natural number; and generating a prediction block of the current chroma block by using the block vector of the current chroma block, as claimed in the amended Claims 13, 16 and 19.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 13, 16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JANG et al., (US 2022/0166986 A1) referred to as JANG hereinafter.
Regarding Claim 13, JANG discloses a method performed by a video decoding device for intra-predicting a current chroma block (Fig. 20), the method comprising:
determining that the current chroma block is predicted in a Direct Mode Intra Block Copy mode (DM IBC mode) (Par. [0232] a current chroma IBC block is input (S2000), Par. [0263] The current block may be a block encoded/decoded in IBC, and a motion vector of the current block may not be directly signaled and may be derived (i.e. Direct mode) from motion information of a corresponding block. For example, the current block may be a chroma IBC block. When the current block is input, a corresponding block corresponding to the current block may be specified and whether motion information of the corresponding block is available may be determined (S2520) (i.e. direct mode). For example, the corresponding block may be a corresponding luma block corresponding to a chroma IBC block);
checking N predetermined positions within a previously reconstructed (Par. [0189] [0189] In IBC, a reference block is derived from the already reconstructed area (i.e. previously reconstructed) in the current picture and only a predefined area among already reconstructed areas in the current picture may be referenced) corresponding luma area in a predefined order (Par. [0233] in order to derive the motion information of the chroma IBC block, the luma block corresponding to the chroma IBC block may be partitioned into a plurality of luma subblocks (e.g., 4×4 blocks) (S2040) and motion information of the chroma subblock corresponding to each of the plurality of luma subblocks may be derived. Specifically, it may be determined whether a first luma subblock (i.e. predefined order) of the plurality of luma subblocks is a block encoded in IBC (S2050)) to retrieve a luma block predicted in a Intra Block Copy (IBC) mode, wherein N is a natural number (Fig. 21 and Fig. 22, predetermined position of a corresponding luma block for deriving default motion information, Par. [0247] default motion information may be derived based on motion information at a predetermined position of a corresponding luma block. To this end, in step S2210, the predetermined position for deriving the default motion information may be derived. For example, when the predetermined position is a center position of the corresponding luma block, the coordinates of the center position may be derived. Par. [0248] When the predetermined position is derived, it may be determined whether the corresponding luma block at the corresponding position has been encoded in IBC (S2220));
deriving a block vector of the current chroma block based on a block vector of a retrieved luma block (Par. [0232] motion information (i.e. block vector) of the corresponding luma block may be obtained (S2020) or (S2060) and, using this (i.e. based on), motion information (i.e. block vector) of the chroma IBC block may be derived (S2030) or (S2070) [0186] the block vector (or motion vector) may indicate displacement from the current block to a reference block located in an already reconstructed area in the current picture. Accordingly, the block vector (or the motion vector) may be referred to a displacement vector. Hereinafter, in IBC, the motion vector may correspond to the block vector or the displacement vector. The motion vector of the current block may include a motion vector (luma motion vector) for a luma component or a motion vector (chroma motion vector) for a chroma component ); and
generating a prediction block of the current chroma block by using the block vector of the current chroma block (Par. [0186] derive a reference block for the current block in the current picture through the signaled block vector (motion vector), and derive a prediction signal (predicted block or prediction samples) for the current block through this (i.e. by using)).
Regarding Claim 16, the limitations are similar to those treated in the above rejection(s), and are met by the reference as discussed above. Claim 16 however recites an encoding method, rather than a decoding method, which is similar in structure expect in reverse operation. Therefore, Claim 16 is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used above.
Regarding claim 19, it is drawn to the apparatus corresponding to the method of using same as claimed in claim 13. Therefore apparatus claim 19 corresponds to method claims 13, and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used above. However, Claim 19 further recites encoding the video data into a bitstream (See JANG Fig. 1, Par. [0082] The encoding unit 12 may encode an input video/image. The encoding unit 12 may perform a series of procedures such as prediction, transform, and quantization for compression and coding efficiency. The encoding unit 12 may output encoded data (encoded video/image information) in the form of a bitstream); and transmitting the bitstream to the video decoding device (See JANG Fig. 1, Par. [0083] The transmitter 13 may transmit the encoded video/image information or data output in the form of a bitstream to the receiver 21 of the decoding apparatus 20 through a digital storage medium).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to SUSAN E HODGES whose telephone number is (571)270-0498. The Examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00 am - 4:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Brian T. Pendleton, can be reached on (571) . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Susan E. Hodges/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
Prosecution Insights