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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to a continuation application filed in which claims 1-12 are pending and ready for examination.
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 obviousness-type 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); and 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 a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claims 1-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1-6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,818,341. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is fully disclosed in the patent and is covered by the patent since the patent and the application are claiming common subject matter, as follows: Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-6 of U.S. Patent No. 11,818,341, either singularly or in combination, contain each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-12 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the issued patent claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1-6 of U.S. Patent No. 12,069,255. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is fully disclosed in the patent and is covered by the patent since the patent and the application are claiming common subject matter, as follows: Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-6 of U.S. Patent No. 12,069,255, either singularly or in combination, contain each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-12 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the issued patent claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1-14 of U.S. Patent No. 12,621,448. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is fully disclosed in the patent and is covered by the patent since the patent and the application are claiming common subject matter, as follows: Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-14 of U.S. Patent No. 12,621,448, either singularly or in combination, contain each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-12 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the issued patent claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-9 of copending Application No. 19/318,832. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-9 of copending Application No. 19/318,832, either singularly or in combination, contain each and every element and/or render each and every element of claims 1-12 of the instant application obvious. The claims of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the copending application claims and as such are unpatentable over obvious-type double patenting.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims have not in fact been patented.
Allowable Subject Matter
The closest prior art made of record in regards to applicant’s claimed invention is as follows:
Park (US 2014/0369428) discloses a deblocking filtering method, a boundary strength (bS) deriving method, and encoding/decoding method and apparatus using the methods. The bS deriving method includes the steps of: deriving a boundary of a deblocking filtering unit block which is a unit block on which deblocking filtering is performed; and setting a bS for each bS setting unit block in the deblocking filtering unit block. Here, the step of setting the bS includes setting a bS value of a target boundary corresponding to the boundary of the deblocking filtering unit block as the bS setting unit block (abstract).
Rapaka (US 2016/0100163) discloses techniques for determining boundary strength value for an intra-block copy (IBC)-coded block and for selective storage of unfiltered pixel values of a region of a picture based on whether the region will be used as reference for IBC coding (abstract).
Tsai (US 2022/0224886) discloses video processing methods and apparatuses for coding a current block and an adjacent block that comprise receiving input data of the current and adjacent blocks in a current picture, determining the current and adjacent blocks are both coded in a BDPCM or RDPCM mode, performing a deblocking filtering operation on an edge between the current and adjacent blocks by de-activating deblocking filtering for a first color component and activating deblocking filtering for a second color component, and encoding or decoding the current and adjacent blocks. Each current pixel in a BDPCM coded block is predicted by one or more neighboring pixels of the current pixel. RDPCM is applied to process quantized residues of a RDPCM coded block according to a prediction direction of the RDPCM coded block (abstract).
The closest prior art of record, considered individually or in combination, fails to teach or reasonably suggest all the claimed features of claims 1, 5, and 9, structurally and functionally interconnected with other limitations in the manner as cited in the claims and dependent claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHIHAN ZHOU whose telephone number is (571)270-7284. The examiner can normally be reached Mondays-Fridays 8:30am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher Kelley can be reached on 571-272-7331. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHIHAN ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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