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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to a continuation application filed in which claims 1-20 of the instant application are pending and ready for examination.
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 obviousness-type 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); and 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 a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1-22 of U.S. Patent No. 12,301,888. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is fully disclosed in the patent and is covered by the patent since the patent and the application are claiming common subject matter, as follows: Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-22 of U.S. Patent No. 12,301,888, either singularly or in combination, contains each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-20 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the issued patent claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1-17 of U.S. Patent No. 11,991,398. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is fully disclosed in the patent and is covered by the patent since the patent and the application are claiming common subject matter, as follows: Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-17 of U.S. Patent No. 11,991,398, either singularly or in combination, contains each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-20 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the issued patent claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
Allowable Subject Matter
The closest prior art made of record in regards to applicant’s claimed invention is as follows:
Leontaris et al. (US 2017/0230656) discloses systems and methods for improving operation of a video encoding pipeline, which includes a sample adaptive offset block that selects an offset sample from image data corresponding with a coding unit; determines edge offset parameters including a first mapping of an edge classification to an edge offset value and band offset parameters including a second mapping of a band classification to a band offset value based at least in part on analysis of the offset sample; and determines sample adaptive offset parameters based at least in part on a first rate-distortion cost associated with the edge offset parameters and a second rate-distortion cost associated with the band offset parameters. Additionally, a decoding device may apply offsets to decoded image data corresponding with the coding unit based at least in part on the sample adaptive offset parameters (abstract).
Norkin et al. (US 2013/0294525) discloses an efficient deblocking filter control that can be used to reduce blocking artifacts at block boundaries. It is a general objective to provide an efficient deblocking filter control. Thus, the objective is solved by applying different filters for different block sizes such as CU, PU or/and TU sizes. Accordingly, the deblocking filtering strength is adjusted based on the block size, which implies that the amount of modification applied to pixels by the deblocking filter is varied depending on the block size. The amount of modification that is being varied is in one embodiment the number of pixels to be modified (abstract).
He et al. (US 2014/0321552) discloses systems and methods for selection of deblocking parameters. These systems and methods are dependent on and can be adjusted based on applications in which deblocking filtering is to be applied. Various deblocking parameters are iteratively applied in a filter, then the respective distortion values are evaluated in order to select the optimal deblocking parameter. Use of edge detection in relation to selection of deblocking parameters is also described (abstract).
Vanam et al. (US 2015/0312595) discloses a perceptual filter that may be implemented to filter one or more spatial frequencies from a video signal that are below a contrast sensitivity limit of a viewer of the video signal. The perceptual filter may be configured to adapt one or more perceptual filter parameters on a pixel-basis based on, for example, content, viewing distance, display density, contrast ratio, display luminance, background luminance, and/or age of the viewer. A spatial cutoff frequency of the perceptual filter may be mapped to a contrast sensitivity. The perceptual filter may be used as a preprocessing step for a video encoder so as to lower an encoded bitrate. Temporal filtering of the video frames may be used to maintain continuity of a spatial cutoff frequency to ensure the perceptual filtering effects are not identified as motion by a video encoder, and the temporal filtering may be restricted to static areas of a frame (abstract).
The closest prior art of record, considered individually or in combination, fails to teach or reasonably suggest all the claimed features of claims 1, 8, and 15, structurally and functionally interconnected with other limitations in the manner as cited in the claims and dependent claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHIHAN ZHOU whose telephone number is (571)270-7284. The examiner can normally be reached on Mondays-Fridays 8:30am-5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher Kelley can be reached on 571-272-7331. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHIHAN ZHOU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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