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 .
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 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kadono et al. (Pub. No. US 2004/0076237 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Kadono discloses One or more memory or storage devices having stored thereon 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, “a bitstream” is not given patentable weight, because “a 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 claim 9.
Regarding claim 10, Kadono discloses a method of transmitting a bitstream ([0162] the encoded signal Str is transmitted in small data units such as packets instead of as a single continuous bit stream; [0274] broadcast station ex409 transmits an encoded video data bit stream via radio waves to a communication or broadcast satellite ex410).
The BRI of the claimed method includes embodiments where the generation of the bitstream is not performed by the claimed method. The impact on the limitations directed towards the generation of the bitstream only affect the scope of the contents of the bitstream, so those steps should only be considered in terms of what they would require the contents of the information in the bitstream to contain and not actual steps in the method.
The contents of the bitstream, defined by how the bitstream was generated, only describes the content of the information in the bitstream and as result are descriptive language. See MPEP §2111.05.
The bitstream has no functional relationship with the claimed method for transmitting the bitstream. The claim scope (in light of the specification) describes the generation of bitstream in terms of how the video gets encoded within the bitstream, there is provided no functional relationship between the bitstream’s contents once generated and the process for transmitting the bitstream. As result, the contents of the bitstream are non-functional descriptive language and will be given not patentable weight.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by KOO et al. (US 20210281842 A1).
Regarding [Claim 1] KOO discloses An image decoding method ([0016] The decoder is configured to check a length of a signal to which a transform is to be applied in the video signal and to apply, to the signal, the transform matrix determined based on the transform type), comprising:
deriving transform coefficients of a current block from a bitstream (figure 6a, figure 6b, [0032] tables for determining a transform type for a horizontal direction and a vertical direction for each prediction mode; [0139] the primary transform may be pre-defined in a table form in the encoder and/or the decoder);
deriving residual samples of the current block by performing at least one of dequantization or inverse transform on the transform coefficients of the current block (figure 2, units 220 and 230); and
reconstructing the current block based on the residual samples of the current block (figure 2, summation unit),
wherein deriving the residual samples comprises:
determining a transform set for a first inverse transform of the current block, the transform set being determined based on at least one of an intra prediction mode of the current block or a pre-defined mapping table (figure 6a, figure 6b, [0032] tables for determining a transform type for a horizontal direction and a vertical direction for each prediction mode; [0161] FIG. 6a illustrates an example of the table for determining transform types in the horizontal/vertical direction in an intra-prediction mode. For example, the table of FIG. 6b may be used for both an intra-prediction and an inter-prediction; figure 12, [0038] a table illustrating that a transform set is assigned to each intra-prediction mode in an NSST; [0139] the primary transform may be pre-defined in a table form in the encoder and/or the decoder); and
deriving a horizontal transform kernel and a vertical transform kernel of the current block from the transform set, respectively, based on a width and a height of the current block (abstract, checking a length of a signal to which a transform is to be applied in the video signal, wherein the length of the signal corresponds to a width or height of a current block to which the transform is applied; [0011] determining a first transform type for horizontal components of the signal and a second transform type for vertical components of the signal to correspond to the index).
Regarding [Claim 2] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein the mapping table defines a mapping relationship between pre-defined intra prediction modes and transform sets (figure 6a, figure 6b, [0032] tables for determining a transform type for a horizontal direction and a vertical direction for each prediction mode; [0161] FIG. 6a illustrates an example of the table for determining transform types in the horizontal/vertical direction in an intra-prediction mode. For example, the table of FIG. 6b may be used for both an intra-prediction and an inter-prediction; figure 12, [0038] a table illustrating that a transform set is assigned to each intra-prediction mode in an NSST).
Regarding [Claim 3] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein the transform set is mapped to an intra prediction mode having a symmetrical relationship with the intra prediction mode of the current block ([0143] the prediction mode group may be configured based on symmetry with respect to a prediction direction. For example, since prediction mode 52 and prediction mode 16 are symmetrical based on prediction mode 34 (diagonal direction), the same transform set may be applied by forming one group).
Regarding [Claim 4] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein the transform set includes a plurality of transform kernel candidates (figure 32), and
wherein the plurality of transform kernel candidates includes an length-based transform kernel candidate that are equally applied to horizontal and vertical directions ([0012] if the length of the signal corresponds to the first length, the first transform type for the horizontal components of the signal and the second transform type for the vertical components of the signal may be determined based on a combination of the DST-4 or the DCT-4 corresponding to the index. If the length of the signal corresponds to the second length, the first transform type for the horizontal components of the signal and the second transform type for the vertical components of the signal may be determined based on a combination of the DST-7 or the DCT-8 corresponding to the index; figure 44a, figure 44b, figure 45a, figure 45b).
Regarding [Claim 5] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 4, wherein the horizontal transform kernel is set to a transform kernel candidate having a length equal to the width of the current block, and the vertical transform kernel is set to a transform kernel candidate having a length equal to the height of the current block (abstract, the length of the signal corresponds to a width or height of a current block to which the transform is applied; [0088] checks the length of a signal to which a transform is to be applied in a video signal, determine a transform type based on the length of the signal, and apply a transform matrix determined based on the transform type to the signal).
Regarding [Claim 6] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein when the current block is an MxN block, a horizontal transform kernel having a length of M for the current block is identical to a vertical transform kernel having a length of M for an NxM block (abstract, the length of the signal corresponds to a width or height of a current block to which the transform is applied; [0088] checks the length of a signal to which a transform is to be applied in a video signal, determine a transform type based on the length of the signal, and apply a transform matrix determined based on the transform type to the signal).
Regarding [Claim 7] KOO discloses The image decoding method of claim 1, wherein the number of available transform sets is 1, 2, 3, 4, or 7 (figure 12, figure 32, [0142], [0144], [0227]).
Regarding [Claim 8] the same analysis has been stated in claim 1 (corresponding encoding method).
Regarding [Claim 9] the same analysis has been stated in claim 1.
Regarding [Claim 10] the same analysis has been stated in claim 1.
Conclusion
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/XIAOLAN XU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488
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