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 Amendment
The Amendment filed 05/18/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Claims 1, 19- 20 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 05/18/2026, with respect to the rejection of claim 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) has been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claim 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 4, 9, 16, and 18-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
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.
Claims 1, 16, and 18- 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) further in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee):
Regarding Claim 1, Li teaches a method of video decoding performed at a computing system having memory and one or more processors (video decoding method that is performed on an apparatus having memory and processor [0007]; [0009]; [0011]), the method comprising:
receiving a video bitstream comprising a current picture composed of a plurality of blocks, including a current block (receiving a bitstream that include the current block [0116]; [0071]; [0232]);
identifying a reference vector for the reference block, wherein the reference vector is a motion vector or a block vector (determining a reference vector for the reference block which is a motion vector [0158]- [0161]; [0224]).
Li does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Deng teaches identifying a reference block in the current picture by applying a template-matching technique to the current block (intraTMP matches the current block’s template against templates in the reconstructed part of the current frame and identifies the best matching block; [0409]- [0410]);
reconstructing the current block using information from the merge candidate list (reconstructing the current block using the merge candidate selected from the merge candidate list; [0094]; [0099]; [0203]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li to add the teachings of Deng as disclosed above to improve the efficiency of merge-based prediction (Deng [0032]).
Deng does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Lee teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (adding the fetched motion vector to a merge candidate list for the current block [0006]; [0147]; [0229]) and information about the reference block (the merge candidate containing the references block’s motion information [0125]; [0147]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng to further add the teachings of Lee as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Lee [0003]).
Regarding Claim 16, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1. Li further teaches wherein the reference vector for the reference block comprises a subblock-level motion vector (when template matching is used the block is split into sub blocks, and motion vectors for each sub block is determined [0016]- [0019]; [0046] [0067]; [0219]).
Regarding Claim 18, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1. Li further teaches wherein the reference vector comprises a motion vector pointing to a reference picture that is not used by the current block (motion vector pointing to a reference picture that is not used [0132]); and
the method further comprises applying temporal scaling to the motion (applying temporal scaling [0132]).
Regarding Claim 19, Li teaches a method of video encoding performed at a computing system having memory and one or more processors (video decoding method that is performed on an apparatus having memory and processor [0008]; [0009]; [0011]), the method comprising:
receiving video data comprising a current picture that includes a plurality of blocks, the plurality of blocks including a current block (receiving a bitstream that include the current block [0116]; [0071]; [0232]);
identifying a reference vector for the reference block, wherein the reference vector is a motion vector or a block vector (determining a reference vector for the reference block which is a motion vector [0158]- [0161]; [0224]).
Li does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Deng teaches identifying a reference block in the current picture by applying a template-matching technique to the current block (intraTMP matches the current block’s template against templates in the reconstructed part of the current frame and identifies the best matching block; [0409]- [0410]);
encoding the current block using information from the merge candidate list. (encoding the current block using the merge candidate selected from the merge candidate list; [0080]; [0082]; [0084]; [0203]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li to add the teachings of Deng as disclosed above to improve the efficiency of merge-based prediction (Deng [0032]).
Deng does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Lee teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (adding the fetched motion vector to a merge candidate list for the current block [0006]; [0147]; [0229]) and information about the reference block (the merge candidate containing the references block’s motion information [0125]; [0147]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng to further add the teachings of Lee as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Lee [0003]).
Regarding Claim 20, Li teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions and a video bitstream that is generated by a video encoding method, the instructions when executed by a processor, cause a computing system to perform the video encoding method, (a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and a video coding method that is performed on an apparatus having memory and processor [0008]; [0009]; [0011] ) the video encoding method comprising:
receiving video data comprising a current picture that includes plurality of blocks, the plurality of blocks including a current block (receiving a bitstream that include the current block [0116]; [0071]; [0232]);
identifying a reference vector for the reference block, wherein the reference vector is a motion vector or a block vector (determining a reference vector for the reference block which is a motion vector [0158]- [0161]; [0224]).
Li does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Deng teaches identifying a reference block in the current picture by applying a template-matching technique to the current block (intraTMP matches the current block’s template against templates in the reconstructed part of the current frame and identifies the best matching block; [0409]- [0410]);
encoding the current block using information from the merge candidate list. (encoding the current block using the merge candidate selected from the merge candidate list; [0080]; [0082]; [0084]; [0203]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li to add the teachings of Deng as disclosed above to improve the efficiency of merge-based prediction (Deng [0032]).
Deng does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Lee teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (adding the fetched motion vector to a merge candidate list for the current block [0006]; [0147]; [0229]) and information about the reference block (the merge candidate containing the references block’s motion information [0125]; [0147]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng to further add the teachings of Lee as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Lee [0003]).
Claims 2- 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) further in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Woong Lim (US 20260006187 A1) (hereinafter Lim):
Regarding Claim 2, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however, do not explicitly teach wherein populating the merge candidate list using the reference vector comprises populating the merge candidate list with a combined vector generated by combining a block vector obtained from the template-matching technique with the reference vector for the reference block.
However, in an analogous art, Lim teaches wherein populating the merge candidate list using the reference vector comprises populating the merge candidate list with a combined vector generated by combining a block vector obtained from the template-matching technique with the reference vector for the reference block (creating the merge candidate list using a combine motion vector, where the motion vectors are block motion vectors and one is derived using template matching [0875][01397] [01398] [01449]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Lim as disclosed above to improve the speed of a template matching process (Lim [2563]).
Regarding Claim 3, Li in view of Deng, Lee, and Lim teach the method of claim 2. Lim further teaches wherein the combined vector is inserted before at least one of: merge candidates from non-adjacent neighboring blocks, and history-based motion information ([1709] the candidate list is generated based on priority and the combined vector has a higher priority than candidates from non-adjacent neighboring block).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Lim as disclosed above to improve the speed of a template matching process (Lim [2563]).
Claims 4, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park):
Regarding Claim 4, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however, do not explicitly teach wherein populating the merge candidate list using the reference vector comprises populating the merge candidate list with the reference vector.
However, in an analogous art, Park teaches wherein populating the merge candidate list using the reference vector comprises populating the merge candidate list with the reference vector (adding a candidate that include the motion vector into the merge candidate list [0164]; [0208]; [0238]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to further add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Regarding Claim 9, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however, do not explicitly teach wherein applying the template-matching technique comprises deriving a template-matching cost.
However, in an analogous art, Park teaches wherein applying the template-matching technique comprises deriving a template-matching cost (template matching includes deriving the cost [0095]; [0097]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to further add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Claims 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Joonyoung Park (US 20240089488 A1) (hereinafter Joonyoung):
Regarding Claim 5, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein the reference vector is identified by checking at least one position of the reference block.
However, in an analogous art, Joonyoung teaches that the reference vector is identified by checking at least one position of the reference block (scanning candidate positions and checking if each scanned position has available motion information, then using the motion vector from the selected position [0164]; [0174]; [0251]; [0282]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Joonyoung as disclosed above to ensure the reference vector used is obtained from available and valid position to improve image compression efficiency. (Joonyoung [0004]).
Regarding Claim 6, Li in view of Deng, Lee, and Joonyoung teach the method of claim 5. Joonyoung further teaches wherein the at least one position comprises a center position of the reference block (the center position is one of the positions checked [0169]; [0174])
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Joonyoung as disclosed above to ensure the reference vector used is obtained from available and valid position to improve image compression efficiency. (Joonyoung [0004]).
Regarding Claim 7, Li in view of Deng, Lee, and Joonyoung teach the method of claim 5. Joonyoung further teaches wherein the reference vector is identified by checking a center position of the reference block and one or more corner positions of the reference block in accordance with a predefined scanning order (scanning candidate positions in a predefined scanning order and checking if each scanned position has available motion information, then using the motion vector from the selected position. The positions include the center and corners [0015]; [0164]; [0174]; [0251]; [0263]; [0282]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Joonyoung as disclosed above to ensure the reference vector used is obtained from available and valid position to improve image compression efficiency. (Joonyoung [0004]).
Regarding Claim 8, Li in view of Deng, Lee, and Joonyoung teach the method of claim 5. Joonyoung further teaches when the at least one position of the reference block does not have an available reference vector, forgoing populating the merge candidate list with a vector corresponding to the reference block (scanning candidate positions and checking if each scanned position has available motion information, if the motion information is not available then it is skipped [0164]; [0174]; [0251]; [0282]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Joonyoung as disclosed above to ensure the reference vector used is obtained from available and valid position to improve image compression efficiency. (Joonyoung [0004]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Karam Naser (US 20250379985 A1) (hereinafter Naser):
Regarding Claim 10, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein the template-matching technique is applied to a search area corresponding to a reconstructed portion of the current picture.
However, in an analogous art, Naser teaches wherein the template-matching technique is applied to a search area corresponding to a reconstructed portion of the current picture (the template matching is done to a defined search area in the reconstructed part of the current frame [0127]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Naser as disclosed above to ensure the reference vector used is obtained from available and valid position to improve the speed of searching. (Naser [0002]).
Claims 11, and 14- 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Yanzhuo Ma (US 20250343904 A1) (hereinafter Ma):
Regarding Claim 11, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1. Li further teaches identifying a second reference vector for the second reference block (determining a reference vector for the reference block which is a motion vector [0158]- [0161]; [0224]).;
Li does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Park teaches populating the merge candidate list with the second reference vector (generating the merge candidate list for the current block using the motion vector [0091]; [0093]- [0094]; [0288]; [0234]);
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to further add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Park does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Ma teaches identifying a second reference block by applying the template-matching technique to the reference block (determining a second reference block by using template matching of the block [0378]);
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng, Lee and Park to further add the teachings of Ma as disclosed above to improve prediction accuracy (Ma [0005]).
Regarding Claim 14, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1. Li further teaches identifying a second reference vector for the second reference block (determining a reference vector for the reference block which is a motion vector [0158]- [0161]; [0224]).
Li does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Park teaches wherein the merge candidate list is populated using the second reference vector (generating the merge candidate list for the current block using the motion vector [0091]; [0093]- [0094]; [0288]; [0234]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to further add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Park does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Ma teaches wherein the reference vector is a block vector (the vector is a block vector [0077]); and
wherein the method further comprises: identifying a second reference block using the block vector (determining the second reference block using the block vector [0377]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng, Lee and Park to further add the teachings of Ma as disclosed above to improve prediction accuracy (Ma [0005]).
Regarding Claim 15, Li in view of Deng, Lee, Park and Ma teach the method of claim 14. Deng further teaches wherein the second reference block is identified in accordance with an allowed chain depth (the second reference block is determined using a limited depth [0625]; [0711]; [0712]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li to add the teachings of Deng as disclosed above to improve the efficiency of merge-based prediction (Deng [0032]).
Claims 12- 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Na Zhang (US 20240259555 A1) (hereinafter Zhang):
Regarding Claim 12, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however do not explicitly teach identifying a template-matching type from a set of template-matching types, wherein the template-matching technique is applied using the template-matching type.
However, in an analogous art, Zhang teaches identifying a template-matching type from a set of template-matching types, wherein the template-matching technique is applied using the template-matching type (multiple types of template matching [0830]- [0847]; [0857]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Zhang as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Zhang [0198]).
Regarding Claim 13, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein the template-matching technique uses a subsampled template.
However, in an analogous art, Zhang teaches wherein the template-matching technique uses a subsampled template (template matching is performed using subsampled template samples [0041]; [1148]- [1149]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Zhang as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Zhang [0198]).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng) further in view of Sungwon Lee (US 20170332099 A1) (hereinafter Lee) in view of Jae Gon Kim (US 20220070448 A1) (hereinafter Kim):
Regarding Claim 17, Li in view of Deng and Lee teach the method of claim 1; however, do not explicitly wherein the subblock-level motion vector for the reference block corresponds to a center position of the reference block.
However, in an analogous art, Kim teaches wherein the subblock-level motion vector for the reference block corresponds to a center position of the reference block (the subblock motion vector corresponds to a predetermined location, in the center of the block [0125]; [0169]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the method and system of processing video data as disclosed by Li in view of Deng and Lee to add the teachings of Kim as disclosed above to improve the determination of motion information using a pre-determined position of the reference block (Kim [0125]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (703)756-1694. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
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/MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2486
/JAMIE J ATALA/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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