DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Double Patenting
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 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); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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 nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of non-statutory obviousness-type double patenting as being un-patentable over claims 1-20 of the U.S
Patent Application No.11263730. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they claim the same subject matter. Furthermore claims 1-20 of the US Patent 11263730 include all the limitation recited in the claims of 1-20 of the instant application.
Regarding independent claims 1, 7 and 13, claims 1, 7 and 13 of the US Patent 11263730 recite the following limitations (representative claim 1):
An image processing method implemented by a processing device in a display system, the display system comprises the processing device and a display device, the image processing method comprises (US Patent 11263730, claim 1, lines 1-3):
determining a first image data format associated with first image data (US Patent 11263730, claim 1, lines 4-5);
determining a first interface mode being used between the processing device and a display device of the display system, (US Patent 11263730, claim 1, lines 6-12);
making a determination that the first image data format is incompatible with the first interface mode (US Patent 11263730, claim 1, lines 6-12 and lines 16-17)
and
processing, in response to the determination, the first image data to generate second image data (US Patent 11263730, claim 1, lines 14-15).
Similarly independent claims 7 and 13 of the instant application, claims 7 and 13 of the US Patent 11263730 recite similar limitations therefore claims 7 and 13 of the instant application are obvious in view of claims 7 and 13 of the US Patent 11263730.
Regarding dependent claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14-20 of the instant application, similarly dependent claims of 2-6, 8-12 and 14-20 the US Patent 11263730 recite similar limitations therefore claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14-20 are also obvious in view of claims 1-20 of the US Patent 11263730.
The above rejection of claims 1-20 of the instant application on the ground of non-statutory obviousness-type double patenting can be overcome by filing terminal disclaimer.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-10, 12-16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishi et al. (US2017/0311034) in view of Pan (US2015/0243200).
Regarding claim 1, 7 and 13 Nishi discloses, except for the limitations italicized below, An image processing method (Nishi, fig. 9), implemented by a processing device in display system/apparatus (Nishi “203” and “204” in fig. 9) in a display system (Nishi “205” in fig. 9, “Display 205 is a display device and displays the basic broadcast video output from broadcast receiver 201 and the communication video output from converter 204 simultaneously” in par. [0128]) the method comprises:
determining a first image data format associated with first image data (“Furthermore, the reception method according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: receiving a first image and first image signal characteristics information indicating image signal characteristics of the first image; receiving a second image and second image signal characteristics information indicating image signal characteristics of the second image; converting, when the first image signal characteristics information and the second image signal characteristics information are different, the image signal characteristics of at least one of the first image and the second image to obtain matched image signal characteristics of the first image and the second image; and simultaneously displaying the first image and the second image having the matched image signal characteristics” in par. [0043]);
determining a first interface mode that is currently used between the processing device and display device, making determination that the first image data format incompatible with the first interface mode; and
processing the first image data to generate a second image data, the second image data has a second image data format supported by the first interface mode (“In the present embodiment, as long as the video signal characteristics of each of the primary video and the secondary video are unified, either the following method (1) or (2) may be performed: (1) converting the video signal characteristics so as to match the video signal characteristics of the primary video; and (2) converting the video signal characteristics into HDR” in par. [0065]).
Furthermore, regarding claims 7 and 13 Nishi disclose processor, memory and non-transitory computer readable medium (Nishi par 0168, Fig. 9, controller 203 and 204 obviously include processor, memory and non-transitory computer readable medium).
Nishi fails to disclose determining a first interface mode that is currently used between the processing device and display device, making determination that the first image data format incompatible with the first interface mode.
Pan teaches, in the same field of endeavor, adjusting one or more of the video processing functions, and/or performing one or more additional processing functions, to convert the decoded SDR video input to an HDR imaging format for improved display at the higher dynamic range of the HDR target panel, based on the input format of the SDR video data (Pan par. [0008], [0114]). Pan further disclose first interface mode that is currently used between the processing device and display device, making determination that the first image data format incompatible with the first interface mode between a processing device and a display device (Pan “130” and “140” in fig. 1) in which, when the physical connection is established between the two, the interface mode is negotiated (Pan “Referring again to FIG. 1, in embodiments of display-side adaptive video processing systems, the decoding/display pipeline 130 may obtain encoded video stream 112, display information 142A, and environment information 152A and take into account one or more of, but not limited to, video content, display panel characteristics, viewer 180 location with respect to the target display panel, ambient lighting 192, and other ambient environment 190 conditions at the display panel 140 when performing HDR video processing. Encoded HDR video data 112 may be received at the decoding/display pipeline 130 from a server/encoding pipeline 110 and decoded. In some embodiments, the decoded video data may be analyzed to determine for example luminance characteristics (e.g., dynamic range), color characteristics (e.g., color range), inter-frame motion, specular highlights, contrast, bright and dark regions, and so on. Based on the analysis of the video content, one or more video processing functions of the decoding/display pipeline 130 (e.g., noise/artifacts reduction, scaling and sharpening, frame rate conversion, display management, etc.) may be adjusted to adapt the video content for display on the target display panel 140. In some embodiments, one or more display characteristics (e.g., display format, dynamic range, bit depth, backlight level, white point, current control 160 settings, etc.) of the target display panel 140 may also be considered in adjusting the video processing functions” in par. [0055]; “determining the first interface mode” can be interpreted using Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) as the act of “arranging” and “concluding” the physical connection between the processing device and display device).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Nishi with the teaching of Pan in order to improve image display quality.
Regarding claim 2, 8 and 14 Nishi discloses further comprising sending the second image data to the display device, the processing device is a playback device (Nishi fig. 9).
Regarding claim 3, 9 and 15, Nishi discloses processing the first image data to generate the second image data comprises: converting the first image data from a first color space to a second color space to obtain image data corresponding to the second color space; performing dynamic range mapping on a luminance component of the image data corresponding to the second color space to obtain mapped data; restoring the mapped data into a linear optical space to obtain restored data; performing color gamut mapping on the restored data to obtain gamut mapped data; and performing non-uniform encoding on the gamut mapped data to generate the second image data (Nishi fig. 7; par. [0107]-[0115]).
Regarding claim 4, 10 and 16 Nishi discloses the first image data format is standard dynamic range (SDR) and the second image data format is high dynamic range (HDR); the first image data format is HDR and the second image data format is SDR; the first image data format is HDR of a hybrid log-gamma (HLG) standard and the second image data format is HDR of a perceptual quantizer (PQ) standard; or the first image data format is HDR of a PQ standard and the second image data format is HDR of an HLG standard (Nishi fig. 2; par. [0061]). Furthermore various formats conversion listed are known in the art and are conventional in the art of image processing and conventional to convert from one format to other format.
Regarding claim 6, 12, 18 Nishi discloses the first image data comprises a video image or a graphic image (Nishi fig. 2).
Claims 5, 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishi et al. (US2017/0311034) in view of Pan (US2015/0243200) and further in view of Zhang (US 2017/0171506).
Regarding claims 5, 11 and 17 the combined references of Nishi and Pan fail to explicitly disclose the first interface mode is a high -definition multimedia interface (HDMI) operation mode.
Zhang teaches, in the same field of endeavor of displaying video content, that examples of common interfaces between receiver and display include high-definition multimedia interface (Figs. 1 and 7, paragraphs 0023 and 0033 and the video signal is converted into HDMI format).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Nishi with the teaching of Zhang such that the first interface mode is a high- definition multimedia interface (HDMI) operation mode since it would have provided a common interface with predictable results.
.
Claims 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishi et al. (US2017/0311034) in view of Pan (US2015/0243200) further in view of Kouno et al. (US2020/0035198).
Regarding claim 19, the combined references of Nishi and Pan fail to disclose wherein the first image data format is HDR of a hybrid log-gamma (HLG) standard, and the second image data format is HDR of a perceptual quantizer (PQ) standard.
However, Nishi teaches wherein the first image data format is HDR and the second image data format is SDR (fig. 2).
Kouno teaches in the same field of endeavor of conversion of a first video signal into a second video signal, an adjusting device which can easily convert the first video signal having a PQ characteristic or the HLG characteristic into the second video signal having the PQ characteristic or the HLG characteristic (par. [0100]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute the teaching of Kouno with the teaching of Nishi in order to accommodate a variety of well- known video signal formats with predictable results.
Regarding claim 20, the combined references of Nishi and Pan fail to disclose wherein the first image data format is HDR of a PQ standard, and the second image data format is HDR of an HLG standard.
However, Nishi teaches wherein the first image data format is HDR and the second image data format is SDR (fig. 2).
Kouno teaches in the same field of endeavor of conversion of a first video signal into a second video signal, an adjusting device which can easily convert the first video signal having a PQ characteristic or the HLG characteristic into the second video signal having the PQ characteristic or the HLG characteristic (par. [0100]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute the teaching of Kouno with the teaching of Nishi in order to accommodate a variety of well- known video signal formats with predictable results.
Communication
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ISHRAT I SHERALI whose telephone number is (571)272-7398. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00AM -5:00 PM.
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ISHRAT I. SHERALI
Examiner
Art Unit 2667
/ISHRAT I SHERALI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2667
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