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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/29/2025 and is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 20, See MPEP 2173.05(g), “the use of functional language in a claim may fail "to provide a clear-cut indication of the scope of the subject matter embraced by the claim" and thus be indefinite.” In re Swinehart, 439 F.2d 210, 213 (CCPA 1971). For example, when claims merely recite a description of a problem to be solved or a function or result achieved by the invention, the boundaries of the claim scope may be unclear. Halliburton Energy Servs., Inc. v. M-I LLC, 514 F.3d 1244, 1255, 85 USPQ2d 1654, 1663 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
Claim 20 recites “A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a video bitstream that is generated by a video encoding method”, but fails to clearly set fourth whether the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium contains the instructions to perform the video coding method. Furthermore, the method steps comprise identifying a reference block and a reference vector, populating a merge candidate list using the reference vector, and encoding the current block using information from the merge candidate list; however, the claim does not indicate what information derived from these steps is present in the bitstream, or how the stored bitstream can be determined to have been generated according to the claimed steps. Therefore, the claim scope cannot be accurately ascertained since the function promised is not aligned with the function(s) in the body.
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, 4, 9, 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 Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park):
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 block by applying a template-matching technique to the current block ( applying template matching to identify a reference block ;[0158]- [0161]);
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, Park teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (generating the merge candidate list for the current block using motion vector [0091];[0093]- [0094]; [0288]; [0234]); and
reconstructing the current block using information from the merge candidate list (reconstructing the block using information from the merge candidate list [0298]; Fig. 25).
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 Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Regarding Claim 4, Li in view of Park teach the method of claim 1. Park further 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 to add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Regarding Claim 9, Li in view of Park teach the method of claim 1. Park further 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 to add the teachings of Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Regarding Claim 16, Li in view of Park 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 Park teach the method of claim 11. 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 block by applying a template-matching technique to the current block ( applying template matching to identify a reference block ;[0158]- [0161]);
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, Park teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (generating the merge candidate list for the current block using motion vector [0091];[0093]- [0094]; [0288]; [0234]); and
encoding the current block using information from the merge candidate list (encoding the block based on the merge candidate list information [0259]; Fig. 25).
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 Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
Regarding Claim 20, Li teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a video bitstream that is generated by a 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 block by applying a template-matching technique to the current block ( applying template matching to identify a reference block ;[0158]- [0161]);
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, Park teaches populating a merge candidate list for the current block using the reference vector (generating the merge candidate list for the current block using motion vector [0091];[0093]- [0094]; [0288]; [0234]); and
encoding the current block using information from the merge candidate list (encoding the block based on the merge candidate list information [0259]; Fig. 25).
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 Park as disclosed above to improve overall coding performance. (Park [0012]).
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 Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Woong Lim (US 20260006187 A1) (hereinafter Lim):
Regarding Claim 2, Li in view of Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park to add the teachings of Lim as disclosed above to improve the speed of a template matching process (Lim [2563]).
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 Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Joonyoung Park (US 20240089488 A1) (hereinafter Joonyoung):
Regarding Claim 5, Li in view of Park 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 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Park 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 Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Karam Naser (US 20250379985 A1) (hereinafter Naser):
Regarding Claim 10, Li in view of Park 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 Park 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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) 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 Park 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 to 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 Park to add the teachings of Ma as disclosed above to improve prediction accuracy (Ma [0005]).
Regarding Claim 14, Li in view of Park 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 to 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 Park to add the teachings of Ma as disclosed above to improve prediction accuracy (Ma [0005]).
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 Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Na Zhang (US 20240259555 A1) (hereinafter Zhang):
Regarding Claim 12, Li in view of Park 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 Park to add the teachings of Zhang as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Zhang [0198]).
Regarding Claim 13, Li in view of Park 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 Park to add the teachings of Zhang as disclosed above to improve the coding efficiency (Zhang [0198]).
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Yanzhuo Ma (US 20250343904 A1) (hereinafter Ma) further in view of Zhipin Deng (US 20250310535 A1) (hereinafter Deng):
Regarding Claim 15, Li in view of Park and Ma teach the method of claim 14; however, do not explicitly wherein the second reference block is identified in accordance with an allowed chain depth
However, in an analogous art, Deng 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 in view of Park and Ma to add the teachings of Deng as disclosed above to further improve coding efficiency (Deng 0003).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang Li (US 20160286229 A1) (hereinafter Li) in view of Naeri Park (US 20210037238 A1) (hereinafter Park) in view of Jae Gon Kim (US 20220070448 A1) (hereinafter Kim):
Regarding Claim 17, Li in view of Park teach the method of claim 16; 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 Park 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
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