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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Claim 1 is rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,236,554.
Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claim limitations of the instant invention are anticipated by the aforementioned US Patent.
In the case of anticipation, there need not be any motivational analysis, since, the claim limitations of the instant invention are encompassed by the above-mentioned US Patent.
In other words, the underlined limitations, that are the common limitations between the Instant invention and the issued Patent being similar, and are thought to be novel, however, the only difference being the section in the issued patent which is not underlined and it would not deviate the novelty of the invention.
Below, a tabular comparison, is indicative of such inclusion:
Application 19/039,881
US Patent 12,236,554
1. A system for encoding an image, the system comprising: a controller; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the controller, cause the controller to perform controller operations comprising: generating a set of coefficients indicative of image contents of an image at a plurality of spatial frequencies; scaling the set of coefficients according to a set of scaling factors to generate a set of scaled coefficients; determining a quantization level by assessing each respective quantization level of a plurality of quantization levels: by quantizing a subset of the set of scaled coefficients within a band of spatial frequencies according to the respective quantization level and determining a respective post-quantization energy of the quantized subset of the set of scaled coefficients; and generating an encoded version of the image based on a scaled and quantized version of the scaled set of coefficients quantized according to the determined quantization level.
1. A method for encoding an image, the method comprising:
generating, based on a block of pixels of the image, a set of coefficients indicative of image contents of the block of pixels at a plurality of spatial frequencies, wherein each coefficient in the set of coefficients is for a respective spatial frequency in the plurality of spatial frequencies; scaling the set of coefficients according to a first set of scaling factors to generate a first set of scaled coefficients; performing an assessment of a plurality of quantization levels, wherein performing the assessment comprises, for each respective quantization level of the plurality of quantization levels: quantizing a subset of the first set of scaled coefficients according to the respective quantization level to generate a quantized subset of the first set of scaled coefficients, wherein the subset of the first set of scaled coefficients are for spatial frequencies within a first band of spatial frequencies; and determining a post-quantization energy of the quantized subset of the first set of scaled coefficients; generating a scaled and quantized version of the set of coefficients based on the assessment of the plurality of quantization levels; and generating an encoded version of the image based on the scaled and quantized version of the set of coefficients.
Regarding claims 2-20, analysis similar to those presented for claims 2-20, of the aforementioned US Patent, are applicable.
Prior Art of record
The Prior Art which are pertinent to Applicant’s invention but were not relied upon:
Brake et al. (USPAP 2003/0179,937), shows a similar system, in which, generating, based on a block of pixels of the image, a set of coefficients indicative of image contents of the block of pixels at a plurality of spatial frequencies and scaling the set of coefficients according to a first set of scaling factors to generate a first set of scaled coefficients (Please note, paragraph 0028. As indicated the upper left DCT coefficient indicates a scaled average value of the input data array. In general, the other coefficients represent the spatial frequency content of the image, with higher frequency components at the lower right of the array.).
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/AMIR ALAVI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2668 Tuesday, October 6, 2026
