DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
1. Applicant’s election with traverse of Group I: Claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 07/23/2026, is acknowledged. Claims 12-20 have been withdrawn. Currently, claims 1-11 have been submitted for examination and are pending.
Priority claim
2. The present application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/651,932, “FLEXIBLE PARTITION SPLIT” filed on May 24, 2024, U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/702,436, “TEMPLATE FILTERING FOR TEMPLATE-BASED INTER PREDICTION” filed on Oct. 2, 2024, U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/702,463, “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIGNALING BASED ON REFERENCE SAMPLES FEATURES” filed on Oct. 2, 2024, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/703,796, “ENHANCEMENT OF REFERENCE PIXEL OR TEMPLATE FOR INTRA PREDICTION MODE” filed on Oct. 4, 2024, which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 11/06/2025. The submissions are 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 § 102
4. 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 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.
5. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
6. Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (US 2018/0220130A1) (hereinafter Zhang) (cited by IDS).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a method for video decoding (e.g., see abstract; Figs. 1-2), the method comprising:
receiving coded information of a current block in a current picture (e.g., see Figs. 1-2, paragraph 0053: Video decoder 30 may receive a bitstream generated by video encoder 20. As noted above, the bitstream may comprise an encoded representation of video data);
determining whether to apply a filter to a neighboring reconstructed area of the current block, the neighboring reconstructed area being adjacent to the current block and including reconstructed samples in the current picture (e.g., see Fig. 7, paragraphs 0106-0111: FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram illustrating how neighboring samples within a current TU (e.g., a 4×4 TU) may be used to filter a current sample. FIG. 7 illustrates current TU 700 as including current sample 700 and neighboring samples 704-710. As shown in FIG. 7, left neighboring sample 710 of current sample 702 is not included in current TU 700. As such, left neighboring sample 710 may not be used in the filtering process of current sample 702);
applying the filter to the neighboring reconstructed area of the current block (e.g., see Fig. 7, paragraph 0111: Filter unit 216 may categorize samples of the current block as either to be filtered or not to be filtered in a variety of ways. As one example, filter unit 216 may perform the categorization based on whether the samples may be used for predicting samples of neighboring blocks. As another example, filter unit 216 may perform the categorization based on whether the samples are located in a pre-defined region of the current block. As another example, filter unit 216 may perform the categorization based on whether the samples are actually used for predicting neighboring blocks); and
reconstructing the current block according to the filtered neighboring reconstructed area (e.g., see Fig. 8, paragraph 0116: As such, where a neighboring block of the current block relied on luma reconstruction samples (e.g., if the neighboring block is coded using CCLM), filter unit 216 may determine that all of the samples of the current block are actually used for prediction of neighboring blocks.).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the filter includes one or more in-loop filters (e.g., see Figs. 1-2, paragraphs 0092, 0109, 0118: filter unit 216 may perform one or more filter operations on reconstructed blocks. In some examples, such as in HEVC, filter unit 216 may employ two in-loop filters, including a de-blocking filter (DBF) and a Sample adaptive offset (SAO) filter).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the one or more in-loop filters include one or more of (i) a deblocking filter, (ii) a sample adaptive offset (SAO), (iii) a bilateral filter, and (iv) an adaptive loop filter (ALF) (e.g., see Figs. 1-2, paragraphs 0092, 0109, 0118: filter unit 216 may perform one or more filter operations on reconstructed blocks. In some examples, such as in HEVC, filter unit 216 may employ two in-loop filters, including a de-blocking filter (DBF) and a Sample adaptive offset (SAO) filter).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to apply the filter comprises: determining to apply a deblocking filter when an edge is detected in the neighboring reconstructed area, the filter including the deblocking filter (e.g., see Figs. 1-2, paragraphs 0086, 0093, 0094: filter unit 216 may perform deblocking operations to reduce blockiness artifacts along edges of CUs); also see Figs. 7-9, paragraphs 0118, 0134).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang further discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the edge is detected in the neighboring reconstructed area (e.g., see Fig. 3, paragraphs 0086, 0134: edges of the reconstructed blocks), the deblocking filter is a horizontal deblocking filter when the edge is a vertical edge (e.g., see Fig. 5A, paragraphs 0095, 0096: Horizontal edge and pattern), and the deblocking filter is a vertical deblocking filter when the edge is a horizontal edge (e.g., see Fig. 5B, paragraphs 0095, 0096: vertical edge and pattern; also see Fig. 3, 8, paragraphs 0070-0074, 0113, 0115).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to apply the filter comprises: determining whether to apply the filter based on coding information of the neighboring reconstructed area (e.g., see Fig. 7, paragraph 0110: In accordance with one or more techniques of this disclosure, filter unit 216 may selectively filter samples of a current block such that the filtering does not prevent parallel processing of neighboring blocks. For instance, filter unit 216 may categorize samples of the current block as either “to be filtered” or “not to be filtered” and only perform the bilateral filtering on samples categorized as to be filtered (i.e., filter unit 216 may refrain from bilaterally filtering samples categorized as not to be filtered). In this way, filter unit 216 may still obtain some of the benefits of filtering while still being able to process neighboring blocks in parallel).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang discloses the method of claim 6, wherein the coding information includes partitioning information (e.g., see paragraphs 0040, 0070: NxN block, 16x16, 64x64 partition);
the partitioning information indicates that the neighboring reconstructed area includes reconstructed samples from a plurality of coded blocks in the current picture (e.g., see abstract, paragraphs 0006-0009: reconstructed samples; Fig. 3, paragraphs 0070, 0103, 0107; Figs. 5A-8), the plurality of coded blocks forms at least one coded block boundary in the neighboring reconstructed area, each of the at least one coded block boundary is between two adjacent coded blocks in the plurality of coded blocks (e.g., see Fig. 3, paragraphs 0086, 0134: edges of the reconstructed blocks; Figs. 5A-5B, paragraphs 0095, 0096: Horizontal and vertical edges and patterns; also see Fig. 3, 8, paragraphs 0070-0074, 0113, 0115); and
the determining whether to apply the filter includes determining that the filter is only applied to the reconstructed samples adjacent to the at least one coded block boundary (e.g., see paragraphs 0073, 0074, 0117: boundary filter).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein a minimum of a width and a height of the neighboring reconstructed area is at least 4 samples (e.g., see paragraphs 0073, 0097: width and height samples; also see paragraphs 0103-0106).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the neighboring reconstructed area includes one or more of a top neighboring reconstructed area that is directly above the current block, a left neighboring reconstructed area that is directly to the left of the current block, a top-left neighboring reconstructed area, a top-right neighboring reconstructed area, and a bottom-left neighboring reconstructed area (e.g., see Fig. 6-7, paragraphs 0103, 0106: top and left neighboring area or block of the current block).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the current block is coded using inter prediction, and the neighboring reconstructed area is a current template of the current block (e.g., see Fig. 2, paragraphs 0044, 0067, 0068: inter-prediction; also see paragraphs 0087, 0088, 0131).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the current block is coded using one of (i) intra prediction and (ii) a block vector (BV) based prediction mode (e.g., see Fig. 2, paragraph 0044, 0053, 0056: intra prediction; also see Fig. 4A, paragraphs 0064, 0071, 0119).
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ON MUNG whose telephone number is (571) 270-7557 and whose direct fax number is (571) 270-8557. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9am - 6pm (ET).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JAMIE ATALA can be reached on (571)272-7384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ON S MUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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