DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This action is responsive to communications: RCE filed on 2/13/2024.
Claims 1-4, 6-21 are pending. Claims 1, 9, and 16 are independent. Claim 5 was previously canceled.
The previous rejection of claims 1-4, 6-21 under 35 USC § 103 have been withdrawn in view of the amendment.
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, 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6, 9-13, and 16-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sanden et al. (US2014/0379317) in view of Leung (“Subsurface Boundary Geometry Modeling: Applying Computational Physics, Computer Vision, and Signal Processing Techniques to Geoscience”) and Le Guern et al. (US11,644,589) and Scott et al. (US7,038,681) and Strebelle et al. (US2006/0041409).
In regards to claim 1, Sanden et al. substantially discloses a system comprising:
a processing device (Sanden et al. para[0005]); and
a memory device comprising instructions that are executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
receive an unstructured document (Sanden et al. para[0087], receives unstructured documents);
define an area of interest of the unstructured document that visually represents geological formation information (Sanden et al. para[0125]-[0126], identifies and extracts geological data);
assign:
the gross depositional environment and a corresponding facie type of the facies types of the area of interest(Sanden et al. para[0207], GUI controls identifies geostatistical data relating to facies for further processing) to each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons based on the plurality of document properties from the unstructured document to each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons (Sanden et al. para[0285], assigns geological properties form document to map);
assign a coordinate reference frame to the set of vectorized polygons (Sanden et al. para[0117], assigns reference coordinates); and
generate a user-interactive document from the set of vectorized polygons (Sanden et al. para[0162], generates user interactive document).
Sanden et al. does not explicitly disclose extract a set of vectorized polygons from the area of interest.
However Leung substantially discloses extract a set of vectorized polygons from the area of interest (Leung pg161685 section III.E, extracts vectorized polygons from selected region).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden with the boundary modeling of Leung in order to identify the boundaries between geological formations (Leung pg161681 Section I para5).
Sanden et al. does not explicitly disclose assign document coordinates, the document coordinates indicating a set of vectorized polygons in the unstructured document;
assign a coordinate reference frame to the set of vectorized polygons by transforming the document coordinate reference frame that indicates real-world locations of the set of vectorized polygons.
However Le Guern et al. substantially discloses assign document coordinates, the document coordinates indicating a set of vectorized polygons in the unstructured document (Le Guern et al. col23 ln19-31, analyzes document image to define, using coordinates in 3D space, a surface mesh that utilizes triangles as polygons);
assign a geological coordinate reference frame to the set of vectorized polygons by transforming the document coordinates to the geological coordinates reference frame that indicates real-world locations of the set of vectorized polygons (Le Guern et al. col10 ln24-30, assigns location coordinates for a geological environment).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to before the filing date of the invention have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden with the data interpretation method of Le Guern et al. in order to identify and characterize locations in a subsurface region (Le Guern et al. col1 ln1-48).
Sanden et al. does not explicitly disclose identify a plurality of document properties within the area of interest, wherein the plurality of document properties corresponds to a plurality of subsurface formation properties;
partition the area of interest into a set of vectorized polygons based on the plurality of document properties, wherein each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons represents a unique location of a corresponding subsurface formation property of the plurality of subsurface formation properties.
However Scott et al. substantially discloses identify a plurality of document properties within the area of interest, wherein the plurality of document properties corresponds to a plurality of subsurface formation properties (Scott et al. col5 ln54 to col6 ln17, identifies document properties (source coordinates) corresponding to subsurface formation properties (geographic features));
partition the area of interest into a set of vectorized polygons based on the plurality of document properties, wherein each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons represents a unique location of a corresponding subsurface formation property of the plurality of subsurface formation properties (Scott et al. col6 ln18-31, partitions area into polygons representing features and associated with coordinates).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden with the georeferencing system of Scott et al. in order to convert the information contained in a paper map to into a format easier to view and manipulate the underlying data (Scott et al. col5 ln46-53).
Sanden et al. does not explicitly disclose wherein the plurality of subsurface formation properties comprises gross depositional environment and facies types of the area of interest.
However Strebelle et al. substantially discloses wherein the plurality of subsurface formation properties comprises gross depositional environment and facies types of the area of interest (Strebelle et al. para[0056], the polygons are representative of the best estimate on that section of geological facies body).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden with the MPS simulations of Strebelle in order to provide information about reservoir architecture and spatial distribution of facies (Strebelle et al. para[0014])
In regards to claim 2, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the system of claim 1, further comprising: a display device, wherein the instructions are further executable for causing the processing device to: output the user-interactive document to the display device, wherein the user-interactive document comprises interactive information about each vectorized polygon of the set of vectorized polygons (Sanden et al. para[0254]).
In regards to claim 3, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the system of claim 2, wherein the user-interactive document is displayable on the display device as a component of an interactive geospatially-enabled database platform, and wherein the interactive geospatially-enabled database platform comprises a plurality of additional user-interactive documents generated from a plurality of additional unstructured documents (Sanden et al. para[0148]).
In regards to claim 4, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the geological formation information of the area of interest comprises visual indications of a plurality of formation layers (Sanden et al. para[0185]).
In regards to claim 6, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable for causing the processing device to: identify the properties from a legend of the unstructured document, wherein the properties comprise formation characteristics (Sanden et al. para[0239]-[0240]).
Claims 9, 10, 12, and 13 recite substantially similar limitations to claims 1, 4, 6, and 3 respectively. Thus claims 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are rejected along the same rationale as claims 1, 4, 6, and 3.
In regards to claim 11, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the method of claim 10, wherein each vectorized polygon of the set of vectorized polygons is extracted from a formation layer of a set of formation layers represented in the area of interest (Sanden et al. para[0206]).
Claims 16,17, 19, and 20 recite substantially similar limitations to claims 1, 4, 6, and 3 respectively. Thus claims 16, 17, 19, and 20 are rejected along the same rationale as claims 1, 4, 6, and 3.
In regards to claim 18, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., and Strebelle et al. discloses the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the image within the unstructured document comprises a set of formation layers, and wherein each vectorized polygon represents a formation layer of the set of formation layers (Sanden et al. para[0206]).
In regards to claim 21 Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., and Scott et al. substantially discloses the system of claim 1, wherein assign the properties and the document coordinates from the unstructured document to each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons comprises, for each vectorized polygon in the set of vectorized polygons:
Identifying a first characteristic of the vectorized polygon, the first characteristic corresponding to a second characteristic of a geological formation associated with the geological formation information (Le Guern et al. col23 ln25-35); and
Assigning the second characteristic to the vectorized polygon (Le Guern et al. col24 ln53-62).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to before the filing date of the invention have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden with the data interpretation method of Le Guern et al. in order to identify and characterize locations in a subsurface region (Le Guern et al. col1 ln1-48).
Claim(s) 7-8 and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sanden et al. in view of Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., Strebelle et al. and Nguyen et al. (US2019/0086569).
In regards to claim 7, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern al., and Scott et al. and Strebelle et al. discloses the system of claim 1. Sanden et al. does not explicitly disclose wherein the instructions are further executable for causing the processing device to: repair defects corresponding to the set of vectorized polygons, wherein the defects comprise gaps between two or more vectorized polygons of the set of vectorized polygons.
However Nguyen et al. substantially discloses wherein the instructions are further executable for causing the processing device to: repair defects corresponding to the set of vectorized polygons, wherein the defects comprise gaps between two or more vectorized polygons of the set of vectorized polygons (Nguyen et al. para[0018]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden et al. with the seismic survey method of Nguyen et al. in order to identify and correct gaps in survey data (Nguyen et al. para[0016]).
In regards to claim 8, Sanden et al. as modified Leung, Le Guern et al., Scott et al., Strebelle et al. and Nguyen et al. substantially discloses the system of claim 7, wherein the defects further comprise area overlap between two or more vectorized polygons of the set of vectorized polygons (Nguyen et al. para[0018]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to have combined the geological analysis tool of Sanden et al. with the seismic survey method of Nguyen et al. in order to identify and correct gaps in survey data (Nguyen et al. para[0016]).
Claims 14-15 recite substantially similar limitations to claims 7-8. Thus claims 14-15 are rejected along the same rationale as claims 7-8.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-4 and 6-21 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply the current rejection.
Conclusion
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/N.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2141
/KIEU D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2141