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 .
Status of the Application
Claims 1-10 are currently pending in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/17/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/17/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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).
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Claims 1-10 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-10 of U.S. Patent No. 12,244,799 in view of CHUANG et al. (Hereafter, “Chuang”) [US 2021/0321098 A1]. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they cover mutually associated subject matter. Thus, a terminal disclaimer is required. An analysis of the claims can be seen in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Instant Application No. 19/029,779 vs. U.S. Patent No. 12,244,799
Instant Application No. 19/029,779 Claims (Difference Emphasis Added)
U.S. Patent No. 12,244,799 Claims (Difference Emphasis Added)
1. An image decoding method performed by an apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining at least one coding unit including a current coding unit by hierarchically splitting a current image; determining a code value for a difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit as a first value, when a first flag indicating whether signaling for the difference quantization parameter is to be enabled indicates that the signaling for the difference quantization parameter is enabled and a second flag indicating whether a predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is to be used indicates that the predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is used and a split flag indicating whether or not to split the current coding unit indicates that the current coding unit is split and a split type of the current coding unit is a ternary split type and a sum of a value resulting from applying log 2 to a width of the current coding unit and a value resulting from applying log 2 to a height of the current coding unit is equal to a value resulting from adding 1 to a value resulting from applying log 2 to an area of a difference quantization parameter signaling unit; obtaining the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on information about a transform unit of the current coding unit, when the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit is equal to the first value; obtaining a quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on a predicted quantization parameter for the current coding unit and the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit; and obtaining a reconstructed block of the current coding unit, based on the quantization parameter for the current coding unit, wherein the split flag indicates one of a binary split type and the ternary split type when the split flag indicates that the current coding unit is split, and wherein the value resulting from applying log 2 to the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit is determined based on information obtained from a Picture Parameter Set (PPS).
1. An image decoding method performed by an apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining at least one coding unit including a current coding unit by hierarchically splitting a current image; determining a code value for a difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit as a first value, when a first flag indicating whether signaling for the difference quantization parameter is to be enabled indicates that the signaling for the difference quantization parameter is enabled and a second flag indicating whether a predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is to be used indicates that the predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is used and a split flag indicating whether or not to split the current coding unit indicates that the current coding unit is split and a split type of the current coding unit is a ternary split type and a sum of a value resulting from applying log2 to a width of the current coding unit and a value resulting from applying log2 to a height of the current coding unit is equal to a value resulting from adding 1 to a value resulting from applying log2 to an area of a difference quantization parameter signaling unit; obtaining the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on information about a transform unit of the current coding unit, when the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit is equal to the first value; obtaining a quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on a predicted quantization parameter for the current coding unit and the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit; and obtaining a reconstructed block of the current coding unit, based on the quantization parameter for the current coding unit, wherein the split flag indicates one of a binary split type and the ternary split type when the split flag indicates that the current coding unit is split.
2. The image decoding method of claim 1, further comprising: when the first flag indicates that the signaling for the difference quantization parameter is enabled and the second flag indicates that the predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is used, when the split flag indicates that the current coding unit is not split, and when the sum of the value resulting from applying log 2 to the width of the current coding unit and the value resulting from applying log 2 to the height of the current coding unit is larger than or equal to the value resulting from applying log 2 to the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit, determining the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit as a second value; and obtaining the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on the information about the transform unit of the current coding unit, when the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit is equal to the second value and a value of a coding block flag value of the transform unit of the current coding unit is equal to the second value.
2. The image decoding method of claim 1, further comprising: when the first flag indicates that the signaling for the difference quantization parameter is enabled and the second flag indicates that the predefined signaling scheme of the difference quantization parameter is used, when the split flag indicates that the current coding unit is not split, and when the sum of the value resulting from applying log2 to the width of the current coding unit and the value resulting from applying log2 to the height of the current coding unit is larger than or equal to the value resulting from applying log2 to the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit, determining the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit as a second value; and obtaining the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit based on the information about the transform unit of the current coding unit, when the code value for the difference quantization parameter for the current coding unit is equal to the second value and a value of a coding block flag value of the transform unit of the current coding unit is equal to the second value.
3. The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein a value indicating an area of the current coding unit is equal to a predefined multiple of a value indicating the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit, and wherein the predefined multiple is two times.
5. The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein a value indicating an area of the current coding unit is equal to a predefined multiple of a value indicating the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit, and wherein the predefined multiple is two times.
Claim 4 is the same claim 1 but in apparatus form.
Claim 3 is the same claim 1 but in apparatus form.
Claim 5 is the same as claim 2 but in apparatus form.
Claim 6 is the same claim 2 but in apparatus form.
Claim 6 is the same as claim 3 but in apparatus form.
Claim 7 is the same claim 5 but in apparatus form.
Claim 7 is the same claim 1 but in encoding form.
Claim 4 is the same claim 1 but in encoding form.
Claim 8 is the same claim 3 but in encoding form.
Claim 10 is the same claim 5 but in encoding form.
Claim 9 is the same claim 7 but in apparatus form.
Claim 8 is the same claim 4 but in apparatus form.
Claim 10 is the same claim 8 but in apparatus form.
Claim 9 is the same claim 10 but in apparatus form.
The U.S. Patent discloses a value resulting from applying log2 to an area of a difference quantization parameter signaling unit. However, the U.S. Patent fails to explicitly disclose wherein the value resulting from applying log 2 to the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit is determined based on information obtained from a Picture Parameter Set (PPS).
Chuang discloses wherein the value resulting from applying log 2 to the area of the difference quantization parameter signaling unit is determined based on information obtained from a Picture Parameter Set (PPS) ([0016] depth flag diff_cu_qp_delta_depth is presented in a high level syntax, for example in the PPS [0016] A variable, Log 2MinCuQpDeltaSize, is derived from the depth flag. [0050] A variable representing the minimum delta QP signaling CU area, MinCuQpDeltaArea [0052] deriving the variable Log 2MinCuQpDeltaArea using diff_cu_qp_delta_depth).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the claimed invention with the use of a depth flag signaled in the PPS and used to derive the Log 2MinCuQpDeltaSize and/or Log 2MinCuQpDeltaArea as taught by Chuang in order to improve the coding efficiency of the system [See Chuang].
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/KAITLIN A RETALLICK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482