DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 07/11/2025 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Racape et al. (US 20180278954) (hereinafter Racape).
Regarding claim 20, this claim is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a bitstream generated by a method. Significantly, the claimed non-transitory computer readable medium is not implementing any method; no instructions/steps are being executed. Instead, the claimed storage medium merely stores the data output from and/or generated by a method. In other words, these claims are directed to a mere machine-readable medium storing data content (a bitstream generated by an method).
Applicant seeks to patent the storage of a bitstream in the abstract. In other words, the claim seeks to patent the content of the information (bitstream with video content) and not the process itself. Moreover, this stored bitstream does not impose any definitive physical organization on the data as there is no functional relationship between the bitstream and the storage medium. In conclusion, this claim is directed to mere data content (bitstream generated by the recited method) stored as a bitstream on a computer-readable storage medium. Under MPEP 2111.05(III), such claims are merely machine-readable media. Furthermore, there is no disclosed or claimed functional relationship between the stored data and medium. Instead, the medium is merely a support or carrier for the data being stored. Therefore, the data stored and the way such data is generated should not be given patentable weight. See MPEP 2111.05 applying In re Lowry, 32 F.3d 1579, 1583-84, 32 USPQ2d 1031, 1035 (Fed. Cir. 1994) and In re Ngai, 367 F.3d 1336, 70 USPQ2d 1862 (Fed. Cir. 2004). As such, this claim is subject to a prior art rejection based on any non-transitory computer readable medium known before the earliest effective filing date of the present application. Therefore, this claim is anticipated by Racape, as Racape paragraph 20 discloses a computer readable medium storing a coded bitstream.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 1-19 is/are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: independent claim 1 contains the limitations regarding determining, for a conversion between a current video block and a bit stream of that video, a filtered prediction of the current video block based on an offset based regression model that modulates a relationship between a current area and a reference area of the current video block, then performing the conversion based on the filtered prediction. At the time of the effective filing date of the application, these limitations had not been fully anticipated and it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine elements of the prior art to meet this limitation. Independent claim(s) 18 and 19 is/are allowed for the same reasons as claim 1. The dependent claims are allowed for the reasons concerning the independent claim(s).
The closest prior art, Park et al. (US 20250022139), Vasudevan et al. (US 20240267300), Zhao et al. (US 20220224894), Luo et al. (US 20220210462), Chen et al. (US 20220191502), Huo et al. (US 20220116591), Lim et al. (US 20220109846), Bang et al. (US 20210289201), Said et al. (US 20210243442), Poirier et al. (US 20210144391), Racape et al. (US 20180278954), Park et al. (US 20160037177), Lei et al. (US 20090154567) either singularly or in combination fail to anticipate or render obvious the above described limitations. While the prior art contains teachings regarding filtered predictions and considerations toward the offset in prediction coding calculations, the prior art does not teach determining, for a conversion between a current video block and a bit stream of that video, a filtered prediction of the current video block based on an offset based regression model that modulates a relationship between a current area and a reference area of the current video block, then performing the conversion based on the filtered prediction. Therefore, at the time of the effective filing date of the application, these limitations had not been fully anticipated and it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine elements of the prior art to meet this limitation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Matthew D Kim whose telephone number is (571)272-3527. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday: 9:30am - 5:30pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Ustaris can be reached at (571) 272-7383. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW DAVID KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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