Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/23/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
3. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
4. 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.
5. Claims 9 and 14-16 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.
6. The term “close” in claim 9 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “close” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
7. Claims 14-16 depend on the second limitation of claim 12. Therefore, it is unclear how claims 14-16 are performed in the case only the first limitation of claim 12 is chosen.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
8. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
9. Claim(s) 1-7 and 10-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by JANG et al. (US 2025/0184476) hereinafter “JANG”.
As per claim 1, JANG discloses a video decoding method, applied to a decoder and comprising:
determining an initial motion information candidate list of a current block (paragraph 0125, the image decoding apparatus 200 may construct an (A) MVP candidate list), wherein the initial motion information candidate list comprises first-type motion information candidates and second-type motion information candidates, the first-type motion information candidates are determined according to motion information of a neighbouring block and/or a non-neighbouring block of the current block (paragraph 0191, the motion vector of the reconstructed spatial neighboring block and/or the motion vector corresponding to the temporal neighboring block may be used as motion vector predictor candidates), and the second-type motion information candidates are constructed according to a motion vector of a preset value (paragraph 0191, If the number of amvp candidates derived from the spatial neighboring blocks (left blocks and top blocks) and the temporal neighboring blocks (col blocks) of the current block is less than a predetermined number, a history-based candidate based on motion information of previously encoded/decoded blocks of the current block may be included in the mvp candidate list as an amvp candidate) and a reference picture index set by using a preset rule (paragraph 0168, In the amvpMerge mode proposed in the present disclosure, the amvp may be signaled as a general unilateral amvp. That is, a reference index and a Motion Vector Difference (MVD) may be signaled) of the current block on the basis of received information on the motion information);
determining a motion information candidate list of the current block based on ordering partial motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list, wherein the partial motion information candidates comprise at least one first-type motion information candidate and N second-type motion information candidates, and N is a positive integer (paragraph 0142, Merge candidates may be adaptively reordered through template matching. The reordering method may be applied to a regular merge mode, a template matching (TM) merge mode, and an affine merge mode (except for SbTMVP candidate). In the case of the TM merge mode, the reordering of the merge candidates may be performed before the above-described motion vector refinement process. After a merge candidate list is constructed, merge candidates may be divided into one or more subgroups. The size of the subgroup for the regular merge mode and the TM merge mode may be 5. In addition, the size of the subgroup for the affine merge mode may be 3. The merge candidates in each subgroup may be reordered in ascending order according to cost values based on template matching. For simplicity, the merge candidates in the last subgroup, not the first subgroup, may not be reordered);
decoding a bitstream to determine a motion information candidate index of the current block (paragraph 0191, The prediction information (information about prediction) received from the decoder may include selection information (i.e., MVP flag or MVP index) indicating an optimal motion vector predictor candidate selected from among the motion vector predictor candidates included in the MVP candidate list);
determining an inter prediction value of the current block according to the motion information candidate index and the motion information candidate list of the current block (paragraph 0191, the inter prediction unit 260 may select a motion vector predictor of the current block from among the motion vector predictor candidates included in the motion vector candidate list by using the selection information);
decoding the bitstream to determine a residual value of the current block (paragraph 0129, The image decoding apparatus 200 may generate residual samples for the current block on the basis of the received residual information (S740)); and
determining a reconstructed value of the current block according to the residual value and the inter prediction value of the current block (paragraph 0129, The image decoding apparatus 200 may generate reconstructed samples for the current block on the basis of the prediction samples and the residual samples).
As per claim 2, JANG discloses wherein two components of the motion vector of the preset value both take a value of 0 (paragraph 0191, if the number of mvp candidates is less than a predetermined number, a zero vector may be included in the mvp candidate list).
As per claim 3, JANG discloses wherein the N second-type motion information candidates in the partial motion information candidates are N second-type motion information candidates that are sequentially added to the initial motion information candidate list during construction of the initial motion information candidate list (paragraph 0191, If the number of amvp candidates derived from the spatial neighboring blocks (left blocks and top blocks) and the temporal neighboring blocks (col blocks) of the current block is less than a predetermined number, a history-based candidate based on motion information of previously encoded/decoded blocks of the current block may be included in the mvp candidate list as an amvp candidate; see also paragraph 0131, an HMVP candidate may be added as a merge candidate in the merge/skip mode or may be added as an mvp candidate in the MVP mode).
As per claim 4, JANG discloses wherein the N second-type motion information candidates in the partial motion information candidates are N second-type motion information candidates that are ordered after the first-type motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list (paragraph 0192, an mvp list may be constructed using the three available amvp candidates in the order of a spatial candidate derived from spatial neighboring blocks of the current block, a temporal candidate derived from temporal neighboring blocks, a history-based candidate, and a zero vector).
As per claim 5, JANG discloses wherein the partial motion information candidates comprise all the first-type motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list (paragraph 0142).
As per claim 6, JANG discloses wherein N is a preset value; and/or a value of N is 1, 2, or 3 (paragraph 0191, If the number of amvp candidates derived from the spatial neighboring blocks (left blocks and top blocks) and the temporal neighboring blocks (col blocks) of the current block is less than a predetermined number, a history-based candidate based on motion information of previously encoded/decoded blocks of the current block may be included in the mvp candidate list as an amvp candidate); and/or the value of N is less than or equal to a number of allowed reference pictures; and/or the value of N is less than a number of the second-type motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list.
As per claim 7, JANG discloses wherein the N second-type motion information candidates in the partial motion information candidates are second-type motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list that do not satisfy a first condition; or the N second-type motion information candidates in the partial motion information candidates are second-type motion information candidates in the initial motion information candidate list that satisfy a second condition (paragraph 0191, If the number of amvp candidates derived from the spatial neighboring blocks (left blocks and top blocks) and the temporal neighboring blocks (col blocks) of the current block is less than a predetermined number, a history-based candidate based on motion information of previously encoded/decoded blocks of the current block may be included in the mvp candidate list as an amvp candidate).
As per claim 10, arguments analogous to those applied for the second limitation of claim 1 are applicable for claim 10.
As per claim 11, JANG discloses wherein the second-type motion information candidate satisfying the second condition comprises: a second-type motion information candidate with a minimum template matching error in the initial motion information candidate list (paragraph 0139).
As per claim 12, JANG discloses wherein the current block at least comprises a first number of samples (see FIG. 11); or a size of the current block satisfies a third condition preset.
As per claim 13, JANG discloses wherein the first number is 16 (4x4 block as shown in FIG. 11).
As per claim 14, JANG discloses wherein the third condition is that a width and a height of the current block are less than or equal to a first preset size (paragraph 0162).
As per claim 15, JANG discloses wherein the third condition is that a width and a height of the current block are greater than or equal to a second preset size (paragraph 0162).
As per claim 16, JANG discloses wherein the third condition is that a width and a height of the current block are less than or equal to a first preset size and the width and the height of the current block are greater than or equal to a second preset size (paragraph 0162).
As per claim 17, arguments analogous to those applied for the second limitation of claim 1 and for claim 11 are applicable for claim 17.
As per claim 18, JANG discloses wherein determining the template matching errors of the partial motion information candidates comprises: determining a template of the current block; determining, according to motion vectors of the partial motion information candidates, corresponding templates of the template in reference pictures indicated by reference picture indexes of the partial motion information candidates; and determining the template matching errors according to the template and the corresponding templates (see FIG. 9 and paragraphs 0137 and 0139).
As per claim 19, the claim is directed to a video encoding method corresponding to the video decoding method of claim 1; therefore, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 1 are applicable for claim 19 since JANG teaches an encoding method corresponding to a decoding method (see paragraph 0073, 0097 and 0121).
As per claim 20, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 1 are applicable for claim 20; in addition, JANG discloses a memory storing a computer program that is executable by a processor in order to perform the claimed method (see paragraph 0211).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
10. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
11. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
12. Claim(s) 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JANG et al. (US 2025/0184476) in view of Chen et al. (US 2023/0336774) hereinafter “Chen”.
As per claim 8, JANG discloses the method of claim 7; however, JANG does not explicitly disclose wherein the first condition is that a motion vector of the second-type motion information candidate is equal to a motion vector of the first-type motion information candidate and a reference picture index of the second-type motion information candidate is equal to a reference picture index of the first-type motion information candidate.
In the same field of endeavor, Chen discloses wherein the first condition is that a motion vector of the second-type motion information candidate is equal to a motion vector of the first-type motion information candidate and a reference picture index of the second-type motion information candidate is equal to a reference picture index of the first-type motion information candidate (paragraph 0082, After a candidate at the position A1 is added, the addition of the remaining candidates can be subject to a redundancy check which ensures that candidates with same motion information are excluded from the candidate list so that coding efficiency is improved; wherein JANG defines in paragraph 0128 motion information as motion vector and reference picture index).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the teachings of JANG, with those of Chen, because both references are drawn to the field of endeavor, because indeed both references are related to adaptive reordering of merge candidates, and because such a combination represents a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result, such as coding efficiency is improved. This rationale applies to all combinations of JANG and Chen used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
As per claim 9, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 8 are applicable for claim 9; in addition, it is inherited that candidate with same motion vectors means that their vertical and horizontal components are the same or almost the same.
12. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to 3applicant's disclosure. (US-20240179321, US-20240364866, US-20240291967, US-20240244187, US-20230328276, US-20260006208, US-20240414323, US-20230115768)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED JEBARI whose telephone number is (571)270-7945. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 09:00am-06:00pm.
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/MOHAMMED JEBARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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