UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`
`
`
`UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
`United States Patent and Trademark Office
`Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
`P.O. Box 1450
`Alexandria, Virginia 2231371450
`www.uspto.gov
`
`15/177,482
`
`06/09/2016
`
`NORITAKA IGUCHI
`
`2016-1841T
`
`5755
`
`11/20/2019
`- 759°
`”5044
`Wenderoth, L1nd & Ponack, L.L.P.
`1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW
`Suite 500
`
`Washington DC 20036
`
`CHOKSHI' PINKAL R
`
`2425
`
`PAPER NUMBER
`
`NOTIFICATION DATE
`
`DELIVERY MODE
`
`11/20/2019
`
`ELECTRONIC
`
`Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
`
`The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
`
`Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above—indicated "Notification Date" to the
`
`following e—mail address(es):
`eoa @ wenderoth. com
`kmiller @ wenderothcom
`
`PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
`
`

`

`0/7709 A0170” Summary
`
`Application No.
`15/177,482
`Examiner
`PINKAL R CHOKSHI
`
`Applicant(s)
`IGUCHI et al.
`Art Unit
`2425
`
`AIA (FITF) Status
`Yes
`
`- The MAILING DA TE of this communication appears on the cover sheet wit/7 the correspondence address -
`Period for Reply
`
`A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE g MONTHS FROM THE MAILING
`DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.
`Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1.136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing
`date of this communication.
`|f NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.
`-
`- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 133).
`Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any earned patent term
`adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).
`
`Status
`
`1). Responsive to communication(s) filed on 11/04/2019.
`[:1 A declaration(s)/affidavit(s) under 37 CFR 1.130(b) was/were filed on
`
`2a). This action is FINAL.
`
`2b) C] This action is non-final.
`
`3)[:] An election was made by the applicant in response to a restriction requirement set forth during the interview on
`; the restriction requirement and election have been incorporated into this action.
`
`4)[:] Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is
`closed in accordance with the practice under Expat/7e Quay/e, 1935 CD. 11, 453 O.G. 213.
`
`Disposition of Claims*
`
`5)
`
`Claim(s) fl is/are pending in the application.
`
`5a) Of the above claim(s)
`
`is/are withdrawn from consideration.
`
`E] Claim(s)
`
`is/are allowed.
`
`Claim(s) fl is/are rejected.
`
`[:1 Claim(s) _ is/are objected to.
`
`) ) ) )
`
`6 7
`
`8
`
`
`
`are subject to restriction and/or election requirement
`[j Claim(s)
`9
`* If any claims have been determined aflowabie. you may be eligible to benefit from the Patent Prosecution Highway program at a
`
`participating intellectual property office for the corresponding application. For more information, please see
`
`http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init events/pph/index.jsp or send an inquiry to PPeredback@uspto.gov.
`
`Application Papers
`10)[:] The specification is objected to by the Examiner.
`
`11)[:] The drawing(s) filed on
`
`is/are: a)D accepted or b)l:] objected to by the Examiner.
`
`Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1.85(a).
`Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121 (d).
`
`Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119
`12):] Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
`Certified copies:
`
`a)D All
`
`b)I:l Some**
`
`c)C] None of the:
`
`1.[:] Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.
`
`2.[:] Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No.
`
`3.[:] Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage
`application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
`
`** See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.
`
`Attachment(s)
`
`1)
`
`Notice of References Cited (PTO-892)
`
`Information Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO/SB/08a and/or PTO/SB/08b)
`2)
`Paper No(s)/Mail Date_
`U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
`
`3) C] Interview Summary (PTO-413)
`Paper No(s)/Mail Date
`4) CI Other-
`
`PTOL-326 (Rev. 11-13)
`
`Office Action Summary
`
`Part of Paper No./Mai| Date 20191112
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 2
`
`DETAILED ACTION
`
`Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
`
`1.
`
`The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined
`
`under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA.
`
`Response to Arguments
`
`2.
`
`Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are
`
`moot because the arguments do not apply in view of newly found reference Choi being
`
`used in combination with other references in the current rejection. See the new
`
`rejection below.
`
`Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
`
`3.
`
`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, 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.
`
`4.
`
`Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG
`
`Pub 2009/0164652 to Slobotskoy (“S/obotskoy’) in view of US PG Pub 2015/0078456 to
`
`Hannuksela (“Hannukse/a’j and US PG Pub 2015/0288975 to Choi (“Choi’) and further
`
`in view of US PG Pub 2014/0317664 to Park (“Park’).
`
`Regarding claim 1, “A transmitting method” reads on the method of
`
`processing/streaming content to a receiving device (abstract) disclosed by
`
`Slobotskoy and represented in Figs. 2 and 5.
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 3
`
`As to “comprising: dividing an access unit into slice segments or tiles,
`
`encoding the slice segments or the tiles” Slobotskoy discloses (110023, 110035,
`
`10058) that the original content is encoded, where (10037) that the encoded
`
`content includes a plurality of presentation units as represented in Fig. 2
`
`(elements 203, 201 ).
`
`As to “the access unit being an image included in a video signal”
`
`Slobotskoy discloses (110037, 10057) that the presentation unit comprises
`
`audio/video and pictures of the content.
`
`As to “storing the data unit in a packet in units of one data unit, in units of
`
`a plurality of data units including the data unit, or in units of portions into which
`
`the data unit is divided, and generating a packet group” Slobotskoy discloses
`
`(110036, 10037) that the presentation units are packetized as a presentation
`
`group/metadata as represented in Fig. 2 (elements 202A, 202N). Slobotskoy
`
`further discloses (110033, 10039) that the content data and associated packetized
`
`data/metadata is stored in the storage unit as represented in Fig. 2 (elements
`
`204, 102).
`
`As to “transmitting the generated packet group as data” Slobotskoy
`
`discloses (110042, 110043, 10033) that the stream processor transmits content
`
`comprising presentation groups made up of presentation units as represented in
`
`Fig. 5 (elements 103, 203, 108).
`
`As to “generating first information and second information, the first
`
`information indicating a presentation time of a first access unit that is presented
`
`first among the plurality of access units including the access unit, and the second
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 4
`
`information being used to calculate a decoding time of the plurality of access
`
`units” Slobotskoy discloses (110060, 110061) that the media content includes
`
`decode timestamp (DTS) and presentation timestamp (PTS), where they indicate
`
`the order in which the presentation units are to be decoded and presented to the
`
`user of the receiving device; PCR and DTS/PTS timestamps set to freerun
`
`values are generated. Slobotskoy further discloses (10078) that the content is
`
`altered by inserting additional packets to increment DTS and PTS timestamps as
`
`represented in Fig. 7.
`
`As to “transmitting the first information and the second information as
`
`control information” Slobotskoy discloses (10061) that the processor streams
`
`PCR and PTS/DTS timestamps in real-time as represented in Fig. 7, where
`
`(110063) the continuity and accuracy of the PCR, PTS, and DTS timestamps are
`
`maintained throughout the lifetime of the stream.
`
`Slobotskoy meets all the limitations of the claim except “dividing an access
`
`unit into slice segments or tiles.” However, Hannuksela discloses (110056, 10057)
`
`that the access unit includes plurality of slice segments as represented in Fig. 7.
`
`As to “storing at least one of the encoded slice segments or at least one of
`
`the encoded tiles in a network abstraction layer (NAL) unit” Hannuksela discloses
`
`(110053, 110054, 10060) that the pictures are divided into slices and tiles which are
`
`encoded/decoded; (110057, 110060) the slice segment is transported in one NAL
`
`unit.
`
`As to “storing the NAL unit in a data unit, the NAL unit and the data unit
`
`corresponding to each other on a one-to-one basis” Hannuksela discloses
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 5
`
`(10057) that each slice segment is transported in one NAL unit, where (110251)
`
`the NAL unit stored as a data unit in one access unit. Therefore, it would have
`
`been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date
`
`of the invention to modify Slobotskoy’s system by dividing an access units into
`
`segments/tiles and storing these segments in NAL unit as taught by Hannuksela
`
`in order to improve coding efficiency for the enhancement layers, the coded
`
`representation of that layer may depend on the lower layers; each layer together
`
`with all its dependent layers is one representation of the video signal at a certain
`
`spatial resolution, temporal resolution, quality level, and/or operation point of
`
`other types of scalability (110004).
`
`Combination of Slobotskoy and Hannuksela meets all the limitations of the
`
`claim except “storing the NAL unit in a data unit containing a plurality of NAL
`
`units...; storing, in a NAL unit different from the NAL unit in which the video
`
`signal is stored, a parameter set for encoding the video signal.” However, Choi
`
`discloses (110038, 10181) that the system generates NAL unit bitstream including
`
`encoding information, where (110180) the NAL unit is used as a transmission data
`
`unit; (110183) the NAL unit bitstream comprises a plurality of NAL units such as
`
`VCL NAL unit and non-VCL NAL unit as represented in Fig. 14 (elements 1431,
`
`1421, 1422). Choi further discloses (110183, 110072, 10073) that the video data is
`
`mapped to a VCL NAL unit and parameter set comprising information about
`
`encoded video data is stored in non-VCL NAL unit, which is separate from the
`
`VCL NAL unit as shown in Fig. 14 (elements 1420-1422). Therefore, it would
`
`have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 6
`
`date of the invention to modify Slobotskoy and Hannuksela's systems by storing
`
`NAL unit in a data unit with separate NAL units for video signal and parameter
`
`set as taught by Choi so the decoding side may previously identify type
`
`information included in a NAL unit and prepare for decoding process based on
`
`the identified type information (10007).
`
`Combination of Slobotskoy, Hannuksela, and Choi meets all the limitations
`
`of the claim except “wherein the control information is stored and transmitted in a
`
`payload of a different packet, the different packet including a header and the
`
`payload and the different packet including the payload being different from a
`
`packet in which the data is stored”. However, Park discloses (10071) that the
`
`MMTP payload includes fragment metadata that represents control information
`
`for a fragment unit of each of MFUs included in the MMTP payload as
`
`represented in Figs. 48-40; (10106, 110110, 110112) each packet comprises a
`
`packet header and a payload section, where the payload section comprises a
`
`payload header that indicates fragment metadata as shown in Fig. 4D; (110121)
`
`one payload, 700 different from the other payloads 702 and 704, includes
`
`metadata for the other payloads, where each of the payloads 702 and 704
`
`represents fragment metadata for MFUs constituting its payload, and each mdat
`
`box may be fragmented into a plurality of MFUs as represented in Fig. 7.
`
`Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art
`
`before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Slobotskoy, Hannuksela,
`
`and Choi's systems by providing control information and the data in different
`
`packets as taught by Park in order to provide efficient MPEG transport
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 7
`
`technology in the hybrid network environment in which a single terminal is
`
`connected to a plurality of networks and provides multimedia services, and in the
`
`recent multimedia service environment designed to provide hybrid content that is
`
`composed of not only the audio and video data but also the application, widget,
`
`image and the like, and that can be consumed in a user's terminal (110014).
`
`Regarding claim 2, “The transmitting method according to claim 1,
`
`wherein the second information is information used to calculate a decoding time
`
`of part of the plurality of access units” Slobotskoy discloses (110060) that the
`
`decode timestamp (DTS) timestamp includes a series of bits that indicate to a
`
`decoder in the receiving playback device the order in which presentation units
`
`are to be decoded.
`
`Regarding claim 3, see rejection similar to claim 1. Furthermore,
`
`Slobotskoy discloses (10043) that the processed content, as mentioned above, is
`
`output to the receiving device as represented in Fig. 5 (element 104).
`
`Regarding claim 4, see rejection similar to claim 1.
`
`Regarding claim 5, see rejection similar to claim 3.
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 8
`
`Conclusion
`
`5.
`
`Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in
`
`this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP
`
`§ 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37
`
`CFR1.136(a).
`
`A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE
`
`MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
`
`In the event a first reply is filed within
`
`TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not
`
`mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the
`
`shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any
`
`extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of
`
`the advisory action.
`
`In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later
`
`than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
`
`Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
`
`examiner should be directed to PINKAL R CHOKSHI whose telephone number is
`
`(571)270-3317. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 7am-5pm.
`
`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 T PENDLETON can be reached on (571)272-7527. The fax phone
`
`

`

`Application/Control Number: 15/177,482
`Art Unit: 2425
`
`Page 9
`
`number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571 -
`
`273-8300.
`
`Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the
`
`Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for
`
`published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR.
`
`Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only.
`
`For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should
`
`you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic
`
`Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a
`
`USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information
`
`system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272—1000.
`
`/PINKAL R CHOKSHI/
`
`Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
`
`