DETAILED ACTION
Summary
This office action for US Patent application 18/913666 is responsive to communications filed on January 21th, 2026. Currently, claims 1-4 are pending are presented for examination while claim 3 was canceled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION-The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See M.P.E.P. § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: any steps for bitstream transmission in what is supposedly “a method of transmitting a bitstream’. The claim as a whole, directed substantially to a bitstream generated by an image encoding method, appears to be the latest tactic for sneaking a claim to a per se bitstream past the statutory category requirement. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57, 84 U.S.P.Q.2d 1495, 1501-03 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (encoded signal not within any of the four statutory categories of invention). It is suggested that Applicant amend claim 4E to recite a positive method step of “transmitting the bitstream to an image decoding apparatus”. Such an amendment would be a fig leaf actually big enough to cover the claim from the piercing gaze of Section 101.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-2 is/are allowable
New 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 form the examiner should be directed to Nam Pham, whose can be contacted by phone at (571)270-7352. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon—Thurs.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, CZEKAJ DAVID, can be reached on (571)272-7327.
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/NAM D PHAM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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