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 .
Election/Restrictions
2. During a telephone conversation with Anna Lloyd on 06/09/2026 a provisional election was made without traverse to prosecute the invention of the elected group, claims 12-20. Affirmation of this election must be made by applicant in replying to this Office action. Claims 1-11 are withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/15/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 14 and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
6. Claim(s) 12, 15-17 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Karczewicz (US 2015/0281728) hereinafter “Karczewicz”.
As per claim 12, Karczewicz discloses an apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (paragraphs 0242), cause the apparatus at least to perform:
receiving an encoded signal (FIGs. 1 and 3; paragraphs 0038 and 0136); and decoding the encoded signal comprising: using an entropy decoder with an unsigned run length context to decode a first portion of the encoded signal (run-length decoding technique is used to decode the encoded binary prediction vector as taught in paragraph 0177), and using the entropy decoder with a signed relative position context to decode a different second portion of the encoded signal (paragraph 0232, a video coder (such as video encoder 20 or video decoder 30) may use a first context; otherwise (when the condition is not true) the video coder may use another context, where position indicates a relative position of the syntax element being coded in the Boolean vector. In this case, the video coder uses two contexts for coding the syntax elements (e.g., binary flags) in the Boolean vector, and selects a context for a particular syntax element of the Boolean vector based on the relative position of the particular syntax element in the Boolean vector).
As per claim 15, Karczewicz discloses the apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the instructions stored in the at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to perform: determining of a transformation mode from the received encoded signal (paragraph 0135); and applying a reverse operation with the decoding based upon the transformation mode (paragraph 0140).
As per claim 16, Karczewicz discloses the apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the instructions stored in the at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the reverse operation comprising at least one of: rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise; rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise; rotate 270 degrees counterclockwise; flip horizontally; flip vertically; flip horizontally and vertically; or invert pixel values (paragraph 0140).
As per claim 17, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 12 are applicable for claim 17.
As per claim 20, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 15 are applicable for claim 20.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Claim(s) 13 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karczewicz (US 2015/0281728) in view of Ström et al. (US 2015/0281706) hereinafter “Ström”.
As per claim 13, Karczewicz discloses the apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the encoded signal comprises a list of numbers…(the encoded video and syntax elements includes binary prediction vector; see FIGs. 3 and 6; see paragraph 0156), and encoded with a context-based coding based upon at least one context associated with the numbers (paragraph 0160, It is to be recognized that a corresponding technique may optionally be used to define a CABAC context to code the run values).
However, Karczewicz does not explicitly disclose wherein the encoded signal comprises a list of numbers associated with a mask.
In the same field of endeavor, Ström discloses wherein the encoded signal comprises a list of numbers associated with a mask (paragraph 011 teaches that the transmitted bits are in a bit mask; see also FIG. 9).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Karczewicz, with those of Ström, because both references are drawn to the same field of endeavor, because indeed both references are related to encoding/decoding bit string using context models, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale is applied to all combination of Karczewicz and Ström used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
As per claim 18, arguments analogous to those applied for claim 13 are applicable for claim 18.
10. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. (US-20220261248, US-20160127746, US-20080046698, US-20220159207, US-20220417525, US-20150110199, US-20180205962, US-20180205951, US-20030081850, US-20090256729, US-20130058418, US-20180198463, US-20050175250, US-20190253072, US-20160286217, US-11184644, US-7365659, EP-3580902-B1, EP-3624450-A1)
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chris Kelley can be reached at 571-272-7331. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMMED JEBARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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