DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/27/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Examiner incorporates herein previous Responses to Arguments.
On page 8 of the Remarks, Applicant contends the claimed invention prohibits first and second SEI messages included in the same SEI processing order information when the first SEI message has no prefix information and the second SEI message has prefix information. Sullivan’s teachings on page 8 of Sullivan, helpfully reproduced by Applicant on page 8 of Applicant’s Remarks, requires the same. Specifically, Sullivan requires that the “po_sei_prefix_flag[i]…shall be the same as in the other SEI processing order SEI message.” Applicant’s claimed scenario, in which prefix information is not present for a first SEI message but is present for a second SEI message, would clearly violate Sullivan’s requirement that the two shall be the same because the first is null and the second is present with some information. Null information and no null information are not the same. Thus, Sullivan appears to teach or suggest Applicant’s claimed scenario that prohibits coexistence of SEI messages having different prefix presence. To argue otherwise is to ignore Sullivan’s explicitly teaching that the “po_sei_prefix_flag[i]…shall be the same as in the other SEI processing order SEI message.” Regarding Applicant’s supposed distinction between intra-structure level and inter-structure level, such an argument does not argue that which is claimed under BRI and fails to address the rationale explained in the rejection, infra, regarding inheritance and combinability or separability of the processing order information and ignores Sullivan’s teachings regarding these concepts (e.g. wrapping (nesting)). Specifically, the prior art teaches or suggests that nesting is prohibited when coherence is lacking between parent and child SEI messages. Applicant’s insistence that the skilled artisan would interpret fundamentally different structural levels without explicit claim language directing such an interpretation is contrary to the BRI claim interpretation doctrine. For all the foregoing reasons, Examiner is unpersuaded of error.
Examiner further notes, with respect to the above averred feature, JVET-AF0065-v1, cited under the Conclusion of this and the last Office Action, states, “For any two different non-negative integer values of m and n, the values of po_sei_payload_type[ m ] and po_sei_payload_type[ n ] shall not be identical unless po_sei_prefix_flag[ m ] and po_sei_prefix_flag[ n ] are both equal to 1.”
Other claims are not argued separately. Remarks, 10.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112:
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 7, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Specifically, the last wherein clause includes language that states, “the SEI processing order information does not include information on a second SEI message including:” and then apparently proceeds to list (1) payload type information of a first SEI message (huh? I thought we were talking about the second SEI message) that is also unclear (i.e. silent) regarding whether it is included or not; (2) wrapping information for the second SEI message that apparently is double confirmed to not be included; and (3) prefix present information for the second SEI message that is apparently present, regardless of previous language suggesting that none of the enumerated pieces of information are present. The skilled artisan is confused how to interpret whether any of this information is present and under what condition(s). Clearer claim language is necessary to meet the standard of reasonable certainty under 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 7, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yin (US 2024/0283978 A1), Sanchez De La Fuente (US 11,962,765 B1) (herein “Sanchez”), and Sullivan et al., “SEI processing order and processing order nesting SEI messages in VVC (draft 6),” JVET-AF2027-v1, 32nd Meeting: Hannover, DE, October 2023 (herein “Sullivan”).
Regarding claim 1, the combination of Yin, Sanchez, and Sullivan teaches or suggests a method for decoding image information, the method comprising: obtaining each of: supplemental enhancement information (SEI) processing order information for a processing order for a group of types of SEI messages (Yin, ¶ 0036: teaches an SEI message that indicates processing order of SEI messages according to payload type; Sanchez, col. 3, ll. 37–44: teaches processing order information can define a subset (i.e. group) of SEI messages), and processing order nesting information that includes a processing order nesting (PON) nested message (Sullivan, page 8: teaches pon_processing_order[ i ] specifies the position of the i-th processing-order-nested SEI message); and deriving the processing order based on the SEI processing order information (see Yin and Sanchez cited previously), wherein the SEI processing order information includes each of: payload type information for a type of an SEI message (see Yin and Sanchez cited previously), prefix present information for whether prefix information of the SEI message is present or not (Sanchez, col. 3, ll. 52–59: teaches processing order information can include prefix information that identifies SEI messages or can include other information that is not prefix information to identify SEI messages; Examiner interprets this to mean what is explained on page 8 of Sulivan, when it is explained that when more than one SEI processing order SEI message is present in the CVS, the value of po_sei_prefix_flag must be the same as in the other SEI processing order SEI messages in the CVS; see Sullivan, 3rd full paragraph on page 8 starting with: “When more than one….”; see also the constraint on page 9 explaining when the prefix flag indicates prefix information is present (3rd hash/bullet)), wrapping information for whether the SEI message is included in the processing order nesting information or not (Sullivan, page 7: teaches SEI processing order information includes, in addition to payload type information and prefix information, a po_sei_wrapping_flag[ i ]), and processing order information for the processing order for the type of the SEI message (Yin, ¶ 0036: teaches an SEI message that indicates processing order of SEI messages according to payload type; see also Sanchez, Fig. 4 and col. 2, ll. 1–24: teaching processing order information applying in a hierarchical fashion for a type of SEI message; see also Sullivan, page 7), and wherein, based on the SEI processing order information including (a) information on a first SEI message including payload type information indicating a first type of the first SEI message, (b) wrapping information indicating the first SEI message is not included in the processing order nesting information, and (c) prefix present information indicating no prefix information of the first SEI message is present, the SEI processing order information does not include information on a second SEI message including: payload type information indicating the first type of the first SEI message; wrapping information indicating the second SEI message is not included in the processing order nesting information; and prefix present information indicating prefix information of the second SEI message is present (Examiner interprets this claim as essentially saying that where inheritance is proper, it should not be treated as separate, but otherwise it should be treated as separate; The combination of prior art teaches both combining and separating processing order information in terms of nesting based on whether given syntax elements and data structure are in agreement (i.e., represent an alignment); For separability: Sullivan, page 7: teaches the po_id syntax element and explains with respect to that syntax element that processing orders can be treated as alternatives or may be applied complementary such that when complimentary processing orders are present, the SEI messages can be treated independently, i.e. it does not depend on another SEI processing order message and when alternatives is indicated, at most one group is chosen to be applied; Examiner interprets this to mean what is explained on page 8 of Sullivan, when it is explained that when more than one SEI processing order SEI message is present in the CVS, the value of po_sei_prefix_flag must be the same as in the other SEI processing order SEI messages in the CVS; see Sullivan, 3rd full paragraph on page 8 starting with: “When more than one….”; Thus, these teachings of Sullivan, when combined, explain that a given po_id must have consistent prefix information and that otherwise the SEI messages would be treated as having different po_id thus excluded from one another; For combinability: Sanchez, col. 4, ll. 1–10: teaches inheritance of processing order information; Sullivan, page 8: explains nesting SEI messages should be applied only as parts of the processing chain identified by an associated processing order SEI message and be applied in a manner consistent with the processing chain of the associated SEI processing order; In other words, the nested SEI information should be treated as part of the parent SEI message rather than separately; see also Sullivan, page 9: explaining when parent and child are in agreement and thus associated rather than treated separately; Again, Sullivan, page 7: teaches the po_id syntax element and explains with respect to that syntax element that processing orders can be treated as alternatives or may be applied complementary such that when complimentary processing orders are present, the SEI messages can be treated independently, i.e. it does not depend on another SEI processing order message and when alternatives is indicated, at most one group is chosen to be applied; On page 8 of Sullivan, it is explained that when more than one SEI processing order SEI message is present in the CVS, the value of po_sei_prefix_flag must be the same as in the other SEI processing order SEI messages in the CVS; see Sullivan, 3rd full paragraph on page 8 starting with: “When more than one….”; see also the constraint on page 9 explaining when the prefix flag indicates prefix information is present (3rd hash/bullet); Thus, these teachings of Sullivan, when combined, explain that a given po_id must have consistent prefix information and that otherwise the SEI messages would be treated as having different po_id and thus excluded from one another; Examiner further notes, JVET-AF0065-v1, cited under the Conclusion of this Office Action, states, “For any two different non-negative integer values of m and n, the values of po_sei_payload_type[ m ] and po_sei_payload_type[ n ] shall not be identical unless po_sei_prefix_flag[ m ] and po_sei_prefix_flag[ n ] are both equal to 1.”; While not deemed necessary to sustain the rejection, Applicant is being made aware of these teachings to expedite prosecution).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Yin, with those of Sanchez, because both references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice the art of SEI processing order SEI messages would be led to their relevant teachings, because both Yin and Sanchez explain the processing order of SEI information can influence the quality of the decoded picture, and because combining Yin and Sanchez’s processing order SEI messages represents a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Yin and Sanchez used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Yin and Sanchez, with those of Sullivan, because all three references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice the art of SEI processing order SEI messages would be led to their relevant teachings and because Sullivan demonstrates that the publication is a combination of the contributions of both Yin and Sanchez and others, and because Sullivan combines the ideas of nested processing order information, persistence, and SEI wrapping as variously introduced by Sanchez and Yin such that the combination is a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Yin, Sanchez, and Sullivan used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
Claim 7 lists the same elements as claim 1, but is drawn to the corresponding encoding method rather than the decoding method. Therefore, the rationale for the rejection of claim 1 applies to the instant claim.
Claim 8 lists the same elements as claim 1, and includes a preamble that may require a further step of transmitting the data, which is a step also captured within the claimed elements. Therefore, the claim is interpreted as nearly identical to claim 1, and thus the rationale for the rejection of claim 1 applies to the instant claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
He (US 2024/0015332 A1) teaches receiving SEI processing order SEI message indicating a preferred processing order of SEI messages (Abstract). It also teaches payload type is a manifest for the payload of the message (¶ 0005) and that SEI messages can have many types indexed to an index value (e.g. ¶¶ 0075–0076). It explains processing order of SEI is important because post-filter processes performed out of the preferred order “may result in sub-optimal results.” (¶ 0083).
Hannuksela (US 2023/0112309 A1) teaches an SEI manifest SEI message conveys information regarding expected (likely) SEI messages although not necessarily guaranteed to be present and, for each type of likely message, whether the message type is necessary, unnecessary, or undetermined. “Necessary” is to be interpreted loosely as necessary for a best user experience, but not technically necessary for the bitstream to be considered conforming to the video compression Standard (¶ 0317).
Hannuksela, “AHG9: On the SEI processing order SEI message,” JVET-AF0049-v1, 32nd Meeting: Hannover, DE, October 2023. The publication teaches processing order nesting SEI message rather than wrapping SEI messages (Abstract).
Chen et al., “AHG9: On the SEI processing order SEI message (Part 1),” JVET-AF0065-v1, 32nd Meeting: Hannover, DE, October 2023.
Chen et al., “AHG9: On the SEI processing order SEI message (Part 2),” JVET-AF0067-v1, 32nd Meeting: Hannover, DE, October 2023.
Sullivan et al., “Proposed modifications of the draft SEI processing order SEI message in VVC,” JVET-AF0189-v1, 32nd Meeting: Hannover, DE, October 2023.
Yin (US 2025/0211799 A1) teaches neural network post filtering processing order SEI messages (e.g. ¶ 0111) and a list of contributions to the field of processing order SEI messaging (¶ 0112).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael J Hess whose telephone number is (571)270-7933. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon - Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
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MICHAEL J. HESS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2481
/MICHAEL J HESS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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