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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 07/17/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because figure 3 illustrates the signaling of “quad partition information” (according to [0164] of the filed specification), however, the drawings appear to refer to “qaud partition information”. Quad appears to be misspelled. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 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); 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 nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. US 12389006 B2 (hereinafter “The Patent”) in view of Yoo et al. (US 20220021882 A1, hereinafter Yoo).
Claim 1 of The Patent teaches a video decoding method, the method comprising:
obtaining a chroma residual joint flag of a current block indicating whether or not a chroma residual joint mode is applied to the current block;
obtaining, from a bitstream, a transform skip mode flag for a luma component of the current block and a transform skip mode flag for a first chroma component;
when the chroma residual joint flag indicates that a chroma residual joint mode is applied to the current block, determining whether to obtain a transform skip mode flag for the second chroma component of the current block, according to a coded block flag for the first chroma component; and
when the chroma residual joint flag indicates that a chroma residual joint mode is not applied to the current block, obtaining, from the bitstream, the transform skip mode flag for the second chroma component of the current block. Not explicitly taught is obtaining transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode flag for the luma component of the current block indicates that a transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component of the current block.
Yoo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a method for coding a transform skip flag, wherein in the case that the current block is a luma component, flag information related to whether or not transform skip is applied to the current block, that is, transform_skip_flag, is parsed, and subsequently, the residual signal will be decoded according to the parsing result (¶0162). Transform coefficients are generated in the process of generating a reconstructed signal or in generating a residual signal (¶0075). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of The Patent and Yoo to generate/obtain transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component in order to improve compression efficiency.
Claim 2 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 2 of The Patent.
Claim 3 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 3 of The Patent.
Claim 4 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 4 of The Patent.
Claim 5 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 5 of The Patent.
Claim 6 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 6 of The Patent.
Claim 7 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 7 of The Patent.
Claim 8 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 8 of The Patent.
Claim 9 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 9 of The Patent.
Claim 10 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 10 of The Patent.
Claim 11 of The Patent teaches a video encoding method, the method comprising:
residual joint mode is applied to the current block;
encoding a transform skip mode flag for a luma component of the current block and a transform skip mode flag for a first chroma component of the current block;
skipping encoding of a transform skip mode flag for a second chroma component of the current block, when the chroma residual joint mode is applied to the current block; and
encoding the transform skip mode flag for the second chroma component of the current block, when the chroma residual joint mode is not applied to the current block. Not explicitly taught is generating transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode flag for the luma component of the current block indicates that a transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component of the current block.
Yoo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a method for coding a transform skip flag, wherein in the case that the current block is a luma component, flag information related to whether or not transform skip is applied to the current block, that is, transform_skip_flag, is parsed, and subsequently, the residual signal will be decoded according to the parsing result (¶0162). Transform coefficients are generated in the process of generating a reconstructed signal or in generating a residual signal (¶0075). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of The Patent and Yoo to generate/obtain transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component in order to improve compression efficiency.
Claim 12 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 12 of The Patent.
Claim 13 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 13 of The Patent.
Claim 14 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 14 of The Patent.
Claim 15 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 15 of The Patent.
Claim 16 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 16 of The Patent.
Claim 17 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 17 of The Patent.
Claim 18 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 18 of The Patent.
Claim 19 of the instant invention is not patentably distinct from claim 19 of The Patent.
Claim 20 of The Patent teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor perform a method for generating and transmitting a bitstream including encoded video data, the method comprising:
generating the bitstream for a current block in an image; and
transmitting the bitstream,
wherein generating the bitstream for the image comprises:
encoding a chroma residual joint flag of the current block indicating whether or not a chroma residual joint mode is applied to the current block;
encoding a transform skip mode flag for a luma component of the current block and a transform skip mode flag for a first chroma component of the current block;
skipping encoding of a transform skip mode flag for a second chroma component of the current block, when the chroma residual joint mode is applied to the current block; and
encoding the transform skip mode flag for the second chroma component of the current block, when the chroma residual joint mode is not applied to the current block. Not explicitly taught is generating transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode flag for the luma component of the current block indicates that a transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component of the current block.
Yoo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a method for coding a transform skip flag, wherein in the case that the current block is a luma component, flag information related to whether or not transform skip is applied to the current block, that is, transform_skip_flag, is parsed, and subsequently, the residual signal will be decoded according to the parsing result (¶0162). Transform coefficients are generated in the process of generating a reconstructed signal or in generating a residual signal (¶0075). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of The Patent and Yoo to generate/obtain transform coefficients for the luma component of the current block when the transform skip mode is not applied to the luma component in order to improve compression efficiency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES M ANDERSON II whose telephone number is (571)270-1444. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10AM-6PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, BRIAN PENDLETON can be reached at 571-272-7527. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James M Anderson II/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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