SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

May 22, 2020

14922714 - (D) (P.T.A.B. May. 22, 2020)

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 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
14/922,714 10/26/2015 Jin Young LEE 012052.1071C1 6887
89980 7590 05/22/2020
NSIP LAW
P.O. Box 65745
Washington, DC 20035
EXAMINER
LI, TRACY Y
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2487
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
05/22/2020 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):
pto.nsip@gmail.com
pto@nsiplaw.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
____________

Ex parte JIN YOUNG LEE, DU-SIK PARK, JAEJOON LEE,
HO CHEON WEY, IL SOON LIM, and SEOK LEE
____________

Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714
Technology Center 2400
____________

Before ELENI MANTIS MERCADER, NORMAN H. BEAMER, and
GARTH D. BAER, Administrative Patent Judges.

MANTIS MERCADER, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL

Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714

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STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant1 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s
final rejection of claims 1, 2, 6, and 7; claims 3–5 are also pending and
indicated as containing allowable subject matter. See Final Act. 4, 6. We
have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.
THE INVENTION
Appellant’s claimed invention is directed to “a 3D video motion
estimating apparatus and method” in which the “3D video motion estimating
apparatus may enable a motion vector of a color image and a motion vector
of a depth image refer to each other” (Abstract).
Independent claim 1 is reproduced below, and is representative of the
subject matter on appeal:
1. A[n] apparatus of estimating a motion of a three
dimensional (3D) video, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a color image
macroblock and a depth image macroblock; and

a determiner configured to determine a motion vector of
the color image macroblock and to determine a motion of the
depth image macroblock based on the determined motion vector
of the color image macroblock, wherein the determined motion
vector of the color image macroblock is used as a motion vector
for the depth image macroblock.
Appeal Br. 16 (Claims Appendix).

1 We use the word “Appellant” to refer to “applicant” as defined in
37 C.F.R. § 1.42. Appellant identifies Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. as the
real party in interest. Appeal Br. 3.
Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714

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REFERENCES
The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on
appeal is the following:
Ideses US 2008/0205791 A1 Aug. 28, 2008
Tan US 2010/0141651 A1 June 10, 2010
Choi WO 2009084814 A1 July 9, 2009
REJECTION
The Examiner made the following rejection:
Claims 1, 2, 6, and 7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Tan, Ideses, and Choi. Final Act. 4.
ISSUE
The pivotal issue is whether the Examiner erred in finding the
combination of Tan, Ideses, and Choi teaches or suggests the limitation of:
a determiner configured to determine a motion vector of
the color image macroblock and to determine a motion of the
depth image macroblock based on the determined motion vector
of the color image macroblock, wherein the determined motion
vector of the color image macroblock is used as a motion vector
for the depth image macroblock,
as recited in independent claim 1, and similarly recited in independent claim
6.
ANALYSIS
Appellant argues that:
[e]quation 1 of Ideses explicitly discloses that “D is the computed
depth per pixel, MVx and MVy are motion vectors for the X and Y
directions, respectively.” Id. There, is no mention, not even a hint, of
either of MVx or MVy being related to color image macroblock, as
recited in claim 1.

(Reply Br. 7, citing Ideses ¶ 106).
Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714

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We agree. The Examiner finds, and we agree, that:
Ideses teaches a depth comes from motion or block motion estimate
for calculating depth maps, that indicates the depth value of depth
map represents motion or block motion vector. Therefore, Ideses
teaches the motion of depth map is calculated by motion vectors of
color frame of video as depicted in equation (1).

(Ans. 5, citing Ideses ¶¶ 32–35, 106). However, Ideses further teaches that:
[t]he motion estimation in this method is performed using Sub
MacroBlocks of 4x4 pixels. Therefore, when creating the depth map,
interpolation of the motion vectors to all 16 pixels in the sub
MacroBlock is used.

(Ideses ¶ 109). The Examiner’s finding regarding the depth map
calculations appear to be made with respect to 4x4 pixel blocks, unlike
Ideses’ “block-matching algorithm” which “tries to find ‘the best matching
position’ for the 16x16 macroblock” (Ideses ¶ 98 (emphasis added); see also
Fig. 1).
The Examiner further finds, and we agree that:
Choi teaches motion vectors are used in common by depth images and
color images, that indicates depth image and color use the same
motion vector, the motion vector of one image can be used by the
other image.

(Ans. 5, citing Choi ¶ 17). However, the Examiner does not supply an
express finding that establishes Choi’s motion vectors are based on
macroblocks. While the Answer also refers to Wikipedia entries for “motion
estimation” and “depth map” (see Ans. 5), these citations are insufficient to
support the Examiner’s finding that “Choi teaches the motion vector of the
Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714

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color image macroblock is used as a motion vector for the depth image”
(Ans. 5, emphasis added).2
Taken together, the Examiner has not shown a teaching or motivation
to indicate why one skilled in the art would apply the combined teachings of
Tan, Ideses, and Choi using the claimed “color image macroblock” and
“depth image macroblock.” Nor has the Examiner shown why use of
macroblocks in the combined teachings would be a “predictable variation”
that “a person of ordinary skill can implement.” KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex
Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007).
Accordingly, we are constrained by the record to reverse the
Examiner’s obviousness rejection of independent claim 1, as well as
independent claim 6 commensurate in scope, and dependent claims 2 and 7.3
CONCLUSION
The Examiner erred in finding the combination of Tan, Ideses, and
Choi teaches or suggests the limitation of:

2 We note the file history contains no text copy corresponding to the
Wikipedia entries cited by the Examiner. Generally, we find Wikipedia to
be an unreliable source of information because it is generally not considered
to be as trustworthy as traditional sources for several reasons, including: (1)
it is not peer reviewed; (2) the authors are unknown; and (3) apparently
anyone can contribute to the source definition. See Bing Shun Li v. Holder,
400 Fed.Appx. 854, 857 (5th Cir. 2010) (noting Wikipedia’s unreliability
and citing Badasa v. Mukasey, 540 F.3d 909, 910–11 (8th Cir. 2008)).

3 Should there be further prosecution, the Examiner should consider the
application of Choi Figure 14(b) and paragraphs 108–109 describing using a
motion vector calculated from a color image as the motion vector of a depth
image, in conjunction with Ideses’ “block-matching algorithm” (see Ideses
¶ 98) that uses macroblocks.
Appeal 2019-002330
Application 14/922,714

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a determiner configured to determine a motion vector of
the color image macroblock and to determine a motion of the
depth image macroblock based on the determined motion vector
of the color image macroblock, wherein the determined motion
vector of the color image macroblock is used as a motion vector
for the depth image macroblock,
as recited in independent claim 1, and similarly recited in independent claim
6.
DECISION
In summary:
Claims
Rejected
35 U.S.C.
§
Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed
1, 2, 6, 7 103(a) Tan, Ideses, Choi 1, 2, 6, 7

REVERSED