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 .
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.
DETAILED ACTION
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. See MPEP 707.05. Although the prior art discloses several unclaimed, some claimed limitation. The closest Prior Art of record are considered to be defined by:
Nichols (US 7928732 B2) described measuring resistivity of a formation is to cause a current to flow in the formation and then measure the resultant voltage drops across spaced apart electrodes or measure the magnetic fields produced by the current. The first such measurements, performed by the Schlumberger brothers (1934), consisted of injecting a current between one pair of electrodes in the formation and measuring the voltage drop across another pair. This general concept is still widely used in the petroleum industry and is known as the DC resistivity method. With the DC resistivity method, the depth of investigation is proportional to the overall spacing of the electrodes used in an array. For depths beyond a few hundred meters, the array size becomes impracticable. In addition, for many applications, it is difficult and costly to provide sufficient current for a large array.
The DC resistivity method may also be used on the ocean floor despite the presence of a highly conductive layer (seawater) disposed above the measurement plane. The detectable voltage drops in the resistive sea floor are small, as compared to the surrounding seawater. Nevertheless, because seawater resistivity is essentially constant, very small changes in the observed voltage drops under the sea floor can be interpreted accurately.
One complication in DC resistivity measurement arises when the sub-bottom (e.g., beneath the sea floor) is layered. In this case, to recover information at a greater depth, the separation between the electrodes at a single site must be increased. This is known as an expanding array, and this mode of survey is known in the art as sounding. If the sub-bottom is inhomogeneous, the expanding array must also be laterally moved in order to obtain the spatial distribution of the resistivity. The implementation of such an array is logistically difficult because significant lengths of cables must be moved for each individual measurement.
Accordingly, to acquire the maximum amount of information efficiently, an array consisting of two relatively short dipoles of length a separated by an integer (n) multiple of a (i.e., na) is used. A complete measurement profile consists typically of a set of voltage readings at successive distances to one side (i.e., to the right) of the transmitter. The transmitter is then moved one dipole length to the right and another set of voltages is acquired. The process is then repeated to cover the survey area. If the sampling sites are dense, this dipole-dipole array may provide nearly “continuous” coverage along the survey profile.
As noted above, in DC resistivity measurements, the depth of investigation depends on the overall spacing of the array. Lateral information is obtained by moving the array along the surface. Arrays with small spacing moved in small increments reveal resistivity variations close to the surface, while arrays with large spacings moved in large increments can reveal both near surface and deeper variations. Ideally, a complete suite of data for all spacings and all lateral positions should be acquired to generate a complete “picture” of the subsurface formation. However, the actual data collection and analysis to derive the resistivity distribution is limited by the underlying physics and the practical considerations of making measurements (e.g., spacing and cable length). In addition, current density falls off quickly with distance when using a dipole transmitter. Consequently, the perturbations caused by an inhomogeneity beyond a given depth may be immeasurable due to background noises at the receiver. Ideally there should be a multiplicity of transmitters and receivers disposed over the surface of the ground to recover the three dimensional distribution of ground resistivity. Except for surveys to recover the resistivity of shallow depths, such arrays of current and potential electrodes are impractical (uneconomic) on land, but practical and feasible on the sea bottom as described herein.
Induced Polarization (IP) measurements, which are closely related to DC measurements, may be useful in rocks containing clay or metallic minerals because resistivities in these rocks are complex and frequency-dependent. The IP effect is typically observed with a source having frequencies in a range between 0.01 and 1000 Hz. If resistivity data are acquired at frequencies in this range, in background conductivities, and with array sizes small enough so that background induction effects are negligible, then the in-situ IP effect may be determined from array measurements. IP surveys have been used in petroleum exploration to detect disseminated pyrites that have precipitated in some formations due to reducing chemical environment created by the upward migration of methane from underlying petroleum reservoirs. IP measurements may also be used to survey ocean bottom resistivities. In this case, the frequencies used should be very low to avoid the frequency-dependent induction effects from the overlying ocean. However, because the ocean conductivity is known and constant, even if the frequency-dependent induction effects contribute to the measurement data, they can be removed by applying a first order correction.
Versteeg (US 2015/0006081 A1) described a computer-based method comprising: receiving a first data set of electrical resistivity measurements from a plurality of electrodes arranged to measure electrical resistivity in or around a subsurface area of interest using a first set of acquisition parameters; processing, with one or more computer-based processors, the first data set of electrical resistivity measurements using a first set of processing parameters to produce a first multi-dimensional model of electrical resistivity in the subsurface area of interest; and modifying one or more of the acquisition parameters or one or more of the processing parameters, wherein the acquisition parameters include one or more of the following: an identification of specific electrodes from the plurality of electrodes to be involved in each individual measurement, an identification of which of the specific electrodes involved in each individual measurement will act as a current electrode and which of the specific electrodes involved in each individual measurement will act as a potential electrode, an order in which to make the individual measurements, a value of source current or voltage used in making each individual measurement, a number of frequencies and frequency values to use for each specific electrode combination used in an individual measurement, a total length of an induced polarization window associated with each individual measurement, and a number of measurements to be taken to characterize an induced polarization response for each individual measurement.
Mattsson (US 8990019 B2) described a method implemented using at least one computer for determining characteristics of a target region which is embedded in background material below a body of water, the method comprising: obtaining data representative of characteristics of an electric dipole of the target region, wherein the data was produced by an electromagnetic survey comprising transmitting a source electromagnetic signal from an antenna to the target region, and using electromagnetic sensors to detect electromagnetic fields responsive to the source electromagnetic signal; determining a resistivity background model using a first inversion procedure that minimizes a first objective function, wherein the first objective function includes a difference between a calculated response field based on a one-dimensional resistivity background model and a measured electric field for a common midpoint that is not above the target region; determining, from the data, the characteristic of the electric dipole of the target region; and computing a resistance for the target region using the characteristics of the dipole and the resistivity background model.
Strack (US 2007/0294036 A1) described a method for subsurface Earth surveying, comprising: acquiring seismic data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; acquiring seismoelectric data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface acquiring electroseismic data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; acquiring at least one type of electromagnetic survey data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; matching a survey volume of the seismic data, the seismoelectric data, the electroseismic data and the transient electromagnetic data; and generating a model of the Earth's subsurface that accounts for all of the seismic data, the seismoelectric data, the electroseismic data and the electromagnetic data.
Strack (US 2007/0294036 A1) described a method for subsurface Earth surveying, comprising: acquiring seismic data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; acquiring seismoelectric data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface acquiring electroseismic data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; acquiring at least one type of electromagnetic survey data over a selected region of the Earth's subsurface; matching a survey volume of the seismic data, the seismoelectric data, the electroseismic data and the transient electromagnetic data; and generating a model of the Earth's subsurface that accounts for all of the seismic data, the seismoelectric data, the electroseismic data and the electromagnetic data, wherein the acquiring at least one type of electromagnetic survey data comprises: deploying a plurality of electromagnetic sensors in a predetermined pattern above a portion of the Earth's subsurface to be surveyed; applying at least one of an electric field and a magnetic field to the Earth in the vicinity of the sensors at a plurality of different positions, the electric field produced by passing an electrical current through electrodes, the magnetic field produced by passing an electrical current through an antenna; recording at least one of electric field amplitude and magnetic field amplitude at each of the sensors each time the at least one of the electric field and the magnetic field is applied to the Earth; adjusting each recording for acquisition geometry; and generating an image corresponding to at least one sensor position using at least two stacked, adjusted recordings,
Minerbo (US 6023168 A) described a method for measuring formation resistivity uses a tool including a central current electrode and a series of voltage electrodes arranged in pairs on either side of the current electrode. A series of measurements is made using the current electrode with different numbers of pairs of voltage electrodes maintained at a predetermined voltage so as to allow resistivity in the formation to be determined with different depths of investigation. In this manner these measurements are focused and are relatively unaffected by the borehole or by adjacent layers in the formation. The central current electrode is segmented azimuthally into a series of electrodes, and the current flowing out of each azimuthal segment is measured separately. This can yield resistivity images of the formation surrounding the borehole. The azimuthal imaging capability can be used for stratigraphic or lithologic analysis of the formation and to detect fractures in the rock. The three-dimensional imaging capability can be used in deviated wells or horizontal wells to detect asymmetric invasion, or to locate a bed boundary close to the borehole.
Rykhlinski (US 2009/0121719 A1) described two embodiments of marine geo-electric probe methods for hydrocarbon deposits survey comprise—excitation of electromagnetic field in a surveyed medium by transmitting two rectangular current pulses therethrough, the first—during forward traveling of a probe device along a profile and the second—during backward traveling thereof, —measuring instant values of the first and second electric potential differences during the time between the pulses, wherein, the equal-zero condition of the electric potential differences along the profile is ensured, —calculating three sets of normalized electrical parameters based on difference values, —solving an inverse problem via a differential equation for the dipole source voltage in an electrochemically polarizable medium using the parameters, —producing data according to said electrical parameters, and—determining conductivity of the medium, induced-polarization factor and decay time constant of the polarization potential difference. The first embodiment is deployed for circular survey profiles, the second is for linear profiles.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1-5, the terms “high-density resistivity” “effective measurement” are vague and a relative term that renders the claim indefinite. The terms “high-density resistivity” “effective measurement” not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably appraised of the scope of the invention. An artisan doing measuring and testing would not know at what point “high-density resistivity” “effective measurement” within the scope of the claim had been accomplished because nothing within the disclosure establishes when a sufficient “high-density resistivity” “effective measurement” occur.
In view of the PTO compact prosecution, the Examiner notes that due to the indefiniteness issues described above all consideration of the merits of the claims in view of prior art is as best understood.
Contact information
3. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tung Lau whose telephone number is (571)272-2274, email is Tungs.lau@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Tuesday-Friday 7:00 AM-5:00 PM EST.
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/TUNG S LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Technology Center 2800
September 9, 2025