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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/13/26 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 § 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.
Claim(s) 14-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. US 2013/0114717 in view of Yamamoto et al. US 2015/0312588.
As to claim 14, Zheng teaches a method of decoding a video, the method comprising: deriving a plurality of merge candidates for a current block; [figs. 5-7; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0138-0139; ¶ 0154-0162] constructing a merge candidate list by adding the plurality of merge candidates thereto, wherein during the construction of the merge candidate list, a new merge candidate generated based on two of the plurality of merge candidates is further added to the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162; ¶ 0174-0176] selecting a first merge candidate and a second merge candidate from the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162] and obtaining prediction samples of the current block based on first motion information derived from the first merge candidate and second motion information derived from the second merge candidate, [¶ 0175-0176] wherein: first index information, specifying the first merge candidate, is explicitly signaled via a bitstream, [¶ 0028-0029; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0155-0162]
Zheng does not explicitly teach a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate.
Yamamoto teaches a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate. [¶ 0538; ¶ 0539]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the techniques of Yamamoto with the teachings of Zheng allowing for improved coding efficiency.
As to claim 15, Zheng (modified by Yamamoto) teaches the limitations of claim 1. Zheng teaches wherein in response to the second merge candidate has both LO motion information and L1 motion information, the second motion information is inherited from either of the LO motion information and L1 motion information. [¶ 0175-0176]
As to claim 16, Zheng teaches a method of encoding a video, the method comprising: deriving a plurality of merge candidates for a current block; [figs. 5-7; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0138-0139; ¶ 0154-0162] constructing a merge candidate list by adding the plurality of merge candidates thereto, wherein during the construction of the merge candidate list, a new merge candidate generated based on two of the plurality of merge candidates is further added to the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162; ¶ 0174-0176] selecting a first merge candidate and a second merge candidate list from the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162] and obtaining prediction samples of the current block based on first motion information derived from the first merge candidate and second motion information derived from the second merge candidate, [¶ 0175-0176] wherein: first index information, specifying the first merge candidate, is explicitly encoded into a bitstream, [¶ 0028-0029; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0155-0162]
Zheng does not explicitly teach a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate.
Yamamoto teaches a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate. [¶ 0538; ¶ 0539]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the techniques of Yamamoto with the teachings of Zheng allowing for improved coding efficiency.
As to claim 17, Zheng (modified by Yamamoto) teaches the limitations of claim 16. Zheng teaches wherein in response to the second merge candidate has both LO motion information and L1 motion information, the second motion information is inherited from either of the LO motion information and L1 motion information. [¶ 0175-0176]
As to claim 18, Zheng teaches a device of storing compressed video data, comprising: a processor to generate the compressed video data by encoding a video; [¶ 0046; fig. 1] and a memory to store the compressed video data, [fig. 1; ¶ 0036; ¶ 0045] wherein generating the compressed video data comprises: deriving a plurality of merge candidates for a current block; [figs. 5-7; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0138-0139; ¶ 0154-0162] constructing a merge candidate list by adding the plurality of merge candidates thereto, wherein during the construction of the merge candidate list, a new merge candidate generated based on two of the plurality of merge candidates is further added to the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162; ¶ 0174-0176] selecting a first merge candidate and a second merge candidate list from the merge candidate list; [¶ 0155-0162] and obtaining prediction samples of the current block based on first motion information derived from the first merge candidate and second motion information derived from the second merge candidate, [¶ 0175-0176] wherein: first index information, specifying the first merge candidate, is explicitly encoded into a bitstream, [¶ 0028-0029; ¶ 0076; ¶ 0155-0162]
Zheng does not explicitly teach a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate.
Yamamoto teaches a merge candidate that has a smallest index or has an index by adding an offset to an index of the first merge candidate is determined as the second merge candidate. [¶ 0538; ¶ 0539]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the techniques of Yamamoto with the teachings of Zheng allowing for improved coding efficiency.
Conclusion
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/ANNER HOLDER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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