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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species 3 in the reply filed on 3/2/2026 is acknowledged.
Independent Claims 1 and 18-20 allowable. Claims 2-4 and 11-15, previously withdrawn from consideration as a result of a restriction requirement, require all the limitations of an allowable claim. Pursuant to the procedures set forth in MPEP § 821.04(a), the restriction requirement among species 1-4 as set forth in the Office action mailed on 12/29/2025, is hereby withdrawn and claims 2-4 and 11-15 are hereby rejoined and fully examined for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104. In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement, applicant(s) are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1, from which claims 4-7 depend recites a single index that specifies both displacement magnitude and direction information of a BVD. Claims 4 and 5 conversely indicate a first index used to indicate a displacement magnitude and a second index used to indicate BVD direction. Thus claims 4-5 which describe separate indexes contradict the limitations incorporated into claim 1 which describes a single index. As such the meets and bounds of the claims are unclear.
Claims 6 and 7 depend from claim 5 and lack clarity for the same reason.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3 and 8-20 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Independent claims 1 and 18-20 describe converting between a current video block and a bitstream of video, determining that a first prediction mode and a merge mode are applied to the current block, deriving a block vector for the current block based on at least one motion candidate and a block vector difference information, the block vector difference information including an index specifying both displacement magnitude indicating a predefined offset from a starting point of a BV and direction information indicating a direction of a BVD relative to a starting point of a base BV, and converting the block based on the determined block vector.
The closest arts are Lim and Nein. Lim discloses multi-hypothesis IBC coding using IBC merge and IBC AVMP modes. Nein discloses coding a BVD using direction and magnitude information. However Nein specifically indicates using separate magnitude and direction indices and thus does not disclose a single index indicating both the direction and magnitude of the BVD as required by the independent claims.
Claims 2-3 and 8-17 depend from claim 1 and are allowed for the same reasons.
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.”
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEREMIAH CHARLES HALLENBECK-HUBER whose telephone number is (571)272-5248. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Vaughn can be reached at (571)272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEREMIAH C HALLENBECK-HUBER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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