DETAILED ACTION
1. This communication is being filed in response to the submission dated on 03/20/2026 in which a three (3) month Shortened Statutory Period for Response has been set.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Acknowledgements
3. Upon election made, claims (1 -6) remain pending for examination, of which (1, 4, 6) are the three (3) parallel running independent claims on record.
3.1. The examiner thanks Applicant’s representative for the courtesy extended during recorded Interview [01/20/2026], where an Election requirement disclosed.
Rejection section
Double Patent
4. 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 obviousness-type 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); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
4.1. 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 a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
4.2. Individuals associated with the filing and prosecution of the instant patent application have a duty to disclose information within their knowledge as to other copending United States applications which are "material to patentability" of the application in question. See MPEP §2001.06(b) for more details.
4.3. The three (3) parallel running independent claims (1, 4, 6) in the instant 18/945.720 directed to - a codec ecosystem of the same, employing intra prediction technique of the target block for the DC mode; being rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obvious-type double patenting as being unpatentable over the analogous claims of the parent Appls. 15/067764 (now US 9,900,618 B2) and 15/070155 (now US 10,003,820 B2). Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other, because the claims use similar scope of the invention, and/or similar variations of the same claim language.
Instant Application:
18/945.720
Reference: 15/067764
(now US 9,900,618 B2)
Reference: 15/070155
(now US 10,003,820 B2)
Claim 1. An apparatus for video encoding, the apparatus comprising: prediction block generating unit configured to generate a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode, and performing filtering on filtering target pixels in the prediction block, wherein the filtering target pixels includes at least one pixel which is located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and at least one pixel which is located in a horizontal pixel line at an uppermost side of the prediction block; and a reconstructed block generating unit configured to generate a reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block, wherein the filtered prediction pixel is filtered by applying a filter based on a value which is derived by the DC mode and at least one of an upper reference pixel neighbor to an upper portion of the filtered prediction pixel and a left reference pixel neighboring to a left portion of the filtered prediction pixel, and wherein each of the upper reference pixel and the left reference pixel is a reconstructed reference pixel neighboring to the current block.
Claim 4. A method for video encoding the method comprising: generating a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode, and performing filtering on filtering target pixels in the prediction block, wherein the filtering target pixels include at least one pixel which is located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and at least one pixel which is located in a horizontal pixel line at an uppermost side of the prediction block; and generating a reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a 5 reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block.
Claim 6. A video decoding apparatus comprising: a prediction block generating unit to generate a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block by performing filtering on a filtering target pixel in the prediction block using a plurality of different filters for a plurality of different intra prediction modes of the current block, respectively, and by using a predetermined filter shape, a predetermined filter tap and a predetermined plurality of filter coefficients fixed regardless of a size of the current block for the filtering when intra prediction mode of the current block is a DC mode; and a reconstructed block generating unit to generate a reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block wherein the filtering target pixel comprises a left vertical prediction pixel line that is one vertical pixel line positioned at a leftmost side of the prediction block and an upper horizontal prediction pixel line that is one horizontal pixel line positioned at an uppermost side of the prediction block, and the plurality of different intra prediction modes include the DC mode, a horizontal mode and vertical mode.
Claim 1. A method for generating a reconstructed block, the method comprising generating a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode, and generating reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block, wherein pixel values of filtered prediction pixels of the prediction block are generated using a filter for the DC mode during the intra prediction, the filtered prediction pixels are one or more pixels located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and one or more pixels located in a horizontal pixel line at an uppermost side of the prediction block, and the filter has predetermined fixed filter shape, a filter tap, and a plurality of filter coefficients regardless of the size of the current block
Claim 8. An apparatus for generating a reconstructed block, the apparatus comprising: a prediction block generator to generate a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode and a reconstructed block generator to generate the reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block, wherein pixel values of filtered prediction pixels of the prediction block are generated using a filter for the DC mode during the intra prediction, the filtered prediction pixels are one or more pixels located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and one or more pixels located in a horizontal pixel line at an uppermost side of the prediction block, and the filter has a predetermined fixed filter shape, a filter tap, and a plurality of filter coefficients regardless of a size of the current block.
Claim 1. A method for video decoding, the method comprising: generating a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode; and generating a reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block, wherein prediction values of filtered prediction pixels of the prediction block are generated using a filter for the DC mode during the intra prediction, the filtered prediction pixels are one or more pixels located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and one or more pixels located in a horizontal pixel line at an upper most side of the prediction block, a prediction value of a leftmost and uppermost filtered prediction pixel among the filtered prediction pixels is generated using a 3-tap filter based on a value derived by the DC mode the filter has a predetermined fixed filter shape, a filter tap and filter coefficients regardless of a size of the current block, and in the 3-tap filter, a filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to the value derived by the DC mode is 2/4, a filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to an upper reference pixel is ¼, and filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to a left reference pixel is ¼.
Claim 3. A method for video encoding, the method comprising: generating a prediction block by performing intra prediction on a current block for a DC mode; and generating a reconstructed block based on the prediction block and a reconstructed residual block corresponding to the current block, wherein prediction values of filtered prediction pixels of the prediction block are generated using a filter for the DC mode during the intra prediction, the filtered prediction pixels are one or more pixels located in a vertical pixel line at a leftmost side of the prediction block and one or more pixels located in a horizontal pixel line at an uppermost side of the prediction block, a prediction value of a leftmost and uppermost filtered prediction pixel among the filtered prediction pixels is generated using a 3-tap filter based on a value derived by the DC mode, the filter has a predetermined fixed filter shape, a filter tap and filter coefficients regardless of a size of the current block, and in the 3-tap filter, a filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to the value derived by the DC mode is 2/4, a filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to an upper reference pixel is ¼, and a filter coefficient allocated to a filter tap corresponding to a left reference pixel is ¼.
4.4. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made/filed, to combine the instant 18/945.720 with the cited above reference(s) because although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other, the claim language uses similar scope of the invention, and/or a similar variation of the same claim language.
Claim Objection section
5. The three parallel running independent claims (1, 4, 6) and the associated dependencies are objected to, because of the judicially created Double patent doctrine and the rejection(s) from section (4) above, but they may be considered for allowance if properly rewritten, and/or if a Terminal Disclaimer is timely filed, in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d).
5.1. For additional information regarding TD and/or e-Terminal Disclaimers (e-TD), please refer to: www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-l.jsp.
Prior Art Citations
6. The following List of PA, made of record and not relied upon, is/are considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure:
6.1. Patent documentation
US 9,584,827 B2 Oh; et al. H04N19/119; H04N19/129; H04N19/182;
US 9,445,127 B2 Kim; et al. H04N19/159; H04N19/82; H04N19/117;
US 9,008,175 B2 Auwera; et al. H04N19/46; H04N19/147; H04N19/157;
US 9,900,618 B2 Lee; et al. H04N19/593; H04N19/105; H04N19/11;
US 10,003,820 B2 Lee; et al. H04N19/593; H04N19/105; H04N19/11;
US 10,560,722 B2 Lee; et al. H04N19/82; H04N19/105; H04N19/136;
6.2. Non-Patent documentation:
_ Constrained Infra Source Code Implementation; Sjoberg - Jan – 2011;
_ New intra prediction using the correlation between pixels; Lai – 2010;
Conclusions
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from Examiner should be directed to LUIS PEREZ-FUENTES (luis.perez-fuentes@uspto.gov) whose phone number is (571) 270 -1168. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8am-
5pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, WILLIAM VAUGHN can be reached on (571) 272-1168. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned 571- 272- 3922. 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.
/LUIS PEREZ-FUENTES/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481.
Prosecution Insights