DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the application filed on 8/15/2025.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority. All of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed on the Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 8/15/2025 has/have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-18 are allowed.
Bitstream Claim interpretation
Claims 19 and 20 are directed to a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores generated bitstream.
The bitstream is being treated as a product that is the result of the process (method). The steps are not required elements of claims 19 and 20, so they only limit the invention in terms of how they define the contents of the information in the bitstream. MPEP §2113
The contents of the bitstream, defined by how the bitstream was generated, only describes the content of the information in the bitstream and as result are descriptive language. See MPEP §2111.05. The bitstream has no functional relationship with the claimed non-transitory computer-readable recording medium.
Claim Mapping Notation
In this office action, following notations are being used to refer to the paragraph numbers or column number and lines of portions of the cited reference.
In this office action, following notations are being used to refer to the paragraph numbers or column number and lines of portions of the cited reference.
[0005] (Paragraph number [0005])
C5 (Column 5)
Pa5 (Page 5)
S5 (Section 5)
Furthermore, unless necessary to distinguish from other references in this action, “et al.” will be omitted when referring to the reference.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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.
Claims 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) and (a2) as being anticipated by KARABUTOV et al. (WO 2023085962 A1).
19. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of visual data which is generated by a method performed by an apparatus for visual data processing, wherein the method comprises: determining an adjustment factor by performing one or more integer operations on at least one adjustment parameter and at least one reference factor, wherein the adjustment factor is used to adjust one or more samples associated with a latent representation of the visual data in an adjustment process of an NN-based model, and each of the at least one reference factor and the at least one adjustment parameter is an integer; and generating the bitstream based on the adjustment factor with the NN-based model.
P13 “When it is determined that the size or sub-pixel offset of samples of the second latent tensor differs from the size or sub-pixel offset of samples of the first latent tensor, the sample locations of the first latent tensor are adjusted to match the sample locations of the second latent tensor.”
P16 “According to a fifth aspect, it is provided an apparatus for encoding at least a portion of an image, the apparatus comprising one or more processors and a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors and storing programming for execution by the one or more processors, wherein the programming, when executed by the one or more processors, configures the apparatus to carry out the method according to any one of the first and second aspects and the corresponding implementations described above.”
20. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 19, wherein for each of the one or more integer operations, if all operands of the integer operation are integers, a result of the integer operation is an integer, or wherein all operands of the one or more integer operations are integers, or wherein the one or more integer operations comprise an addition operation, and the adjustment factor is determined by performing the addition operation on the at least one adjustment parameter and at least one reference factor, or wherein the adjustment process comprises a sigma scale process, and the one or more samples comprise a sigma sample or a probability parameter sample for determining the latent representation.
P13 “When it is determined that the size or sub-pixel offset of samples of the second latent tensor differs from the size or sub-pixel offset of samples of the first latent tensor, the sample locations of the first latent tensor are adjusted to match the sample locations of the second latent tensor.”
P16 “According to a fifth aspect, it is provided an apparatus for encoding at least a portion of an image, the apparatus comprising one or more processors and a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors and storing programming for execution by the one or more processors, wherein the programming, when executed by the one or more processors, configures the apparatus to carry out the method according to any one of the first and second aspects and the corresponding implementations described above.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. WANG et al. (US 20250254308 A1) and Esenlik et al. (US 20250379990 A1) disclose relevant art related to the subject matter of the present invention.
A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. An extension of time may be obtained under 37 CFR 1.136(a). However, in no event, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAE N NOH whose telephone number is (571)270-0686. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 8:30AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Vaughn can be reached on (571) 272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAE N NOH/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2481
Prosecution Insights