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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Syntax elements in a bitstream are data but not executable instructions to be run by a computer, i.e., not a program or software. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program or software or executable instructions would be patentable.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 04/10/2026 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of U.S. Patent No. US 12238338 B2 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kadono et al. (Pub. No. US 2004/0076237 A1).
Regarding claims 11-15, Kadono discloses A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program ([0247] recording a program implementing the steps of … method to a floppy disk or other computer-readable data recording medium; [0251]; [0257] The software for … can be stored to any computer-readable data recording medium (such as a CD-ROM disc, floppy disk, or hard disk drive)).
See MPEP 2111.05 (III), when determining the scope of the claims, “an encoded video bitstream” is not given patentable weight, because “an encoded video bitstream” is non-functional descriptive material. It is merely static data that imparts no function (unlike an executable computer program which performs a function). It does not have any functional relationship with the intended computer system. Thus, the computer-readable data recording medium disclosed in Kadono meets claims 11-15.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 would be allowable over the prior art if the above rejections are overcome.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 1, DAMGHANIAN et al. (US 20230024994 A1) discloses A method of coding implemented by an encoding device (abstract, An encoder and corresponding method define the segment partition layout, selects the at least one rule from a set of rules, and encodes the segment partition layout and the indicator value into the bitstream), the method comprising:
obtaining a picture ([0192] An encoder may perform all or a subset of the following steps for this embodiment to encode a current picture into a bitstream), determining a value of a syntax element sps_num_subpics_minus1 according to the picture ([0066] Subpictures are defined as a rectangular region of one or more slices within a picture; [0069] table 4, Subpicture syntax in the SPS, line 5, sps_num_subpics_minus1), wherein the value of the syntax element sps_num_subpics_minus1 plus 1 indicates a number of subpictures in each picture in a coded layer video sequence ([0073] sps_num_subpics_minus1 plus 1 specifies the number of subpictures);
encoding a value of a syntax element sps_independent_subpics_flag into a video bitstream ([0168] table 5 lines 4-6, sps_independent_subpics_flag), wherein the value of the syntax element sps_independent_subpics_flag is used to indicate whether loop filtering across subpicture boundaries is performed ([0170] sps_independent_subpics_flag equal to 1 specifies that no intra prediction, no inter prediction and no in-loop filtering operations may be performed across any subpicture boundary in the CLVS. sps_independent_subpics_flag equal to 0 specifies that intra prediction, inter prediction or in-loop filtering operations across the subpicture boundaries in the CLVS may be allowed).
However, DAMGHANIAN doesn’t disclose
when the value of the syntax element sps_num_subpics_minus1 is greater than a preset value, encoding a value of a syntax element sps_independent_subpics_flag into a video bitstream.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/XIAOLAN XU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488
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