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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 July 2, 2026 has been entered.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-3 and 5-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,167,019. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the outstanding application is directed towards the corresponding encoding method to the decoding method of U.S. Patent No. 12, 167,019.
Application No. 18/899,595 Claim 1
U.S. Patent No. 12,167,019 Claim 1
A method for decoding video data using temporal motion vector prediction (TMVP), the method being executed by one or more processors, the method comprising:
A method for coding video data using temporal motion vector prediction (TMVP), the method being executed by one or more processors, the method comprising:
obtaining a coded video comprising a coded current picture;
receiving video bitstream comprising one or more pictures;
determining a displacement offset to a displacement vector, the displacement offset identifying a block in a reference picture associated with a current block in the coded current picture;
obtaining a displacement vector associated with a current block in a current picture, the displacement vector being signaled in the video bitstream to identify a reference block in the current picture;
determining, using the displacement vector, motion information associated with the identified block, the motion information being used as a motion vector predictor (MVP) from a temporal motion vector predictor (TMVP) candidate; and
determining motion information associated with the reference block based on the displacement vector, the motion information being used as a motion vector predictor (MVP) from a temporal motion vector predictor (TMVP) candidate
decoding the current block using the motion information.
decoding the current block using the derived motion vector for prediction in the regular merge mode or the adaptive motion vector prediction (AMVP) mode.
Claims 2, 3, and 5-20 correspond to claims 2-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,167,019 and are similarly unpatentable.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3 and 5-20 are allowable over the prior art. The claimed invention is directed towards the same coding of video data as found in U.S. Patent No. 12,167,019. The invention improves on existing video decoding for regular merge modes or adaptive motion vector prediction modes by signaling at least one displacement vector in the video bitstream. This one displacement vector is enough to identify a reference block allowing the invention to determine motion information associated with the block, add this information as a motion vector prediction candidate to a subsequently generated motion vector candidate list, from which a motion vector for the current block is derived (rather than selected from the list). It is common practice in the prior art to generate motion vector candidate lists for decoding image blocks, where each candidate is itself a derived motion vector (e.g. MPEG-4, HEVC). Known modifications to these standards include using a first displacement vector to find other displacement vectors (Bae et al. 2022/0150471), or deciding between deriving from displacement vectors/reference blocks and utilizing reference index values to build the candidate list (Astola et al. 2024/0064311 paragraph 0045). However, the prior art at the time of effective filing does not appear to teach or reasonably suggest the claimed invention of 1) signaling a displacement vector; 2) using motion information of the reference block pointed to by the displacement vector as a candidate for a motion vector candidate list; and 3) deriving a new motion vector for the current block from the candidate list rather than selecting from said list.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOMINIC D SALTARELLI whose telephone number is (571)272-7302. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
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/DOMINIC D SALTARELLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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