DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Applicant's response to application filed on 15 June 2023. Currently, claims 1-20 are pending. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are clearly drawn to at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter recited in 35 U.S.C. 101 (method, system and non-transitory machine readable storage device). Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. Claims 1, 8 and 15 recite the abstract idea of a method for geophysical exploration by accessing measured gravity values for a geographical area and modeling gravity values for the geographical area and determining gravity anomaly values based on the measured gravity values and the modeled gravity values and generating a gravity anomaly map of the geographical area based on the determined gravity anomaly values and physical locations in the geographical area associated with the determined gravity anomaly values and generating a dip surface representing inclinations of the geographical area based on the gravity anomaly map. The claims are directed to a type of modeling and mapping geographical data. Under prong 1 of Step 2A, these claims are considered abstract because the claims are certain method of organizing human activity including commercial interactions (business relations) and mathematical concepts. Applicant’s claims are organizing human activity because the claims show geophysical exploration is a human/business activity and that activity is organized by the determination and generating of geographical data that is used for drilling and the claims are mathematical concepts because the generating of a dip map based on modeled gravity values and determined gravity anomalies is a type of mathematical concept. Under prong 2 of Step 2A, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims (the judicial exception and any additional elements individually or in combination such as the system comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations and one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices storing instructions for geophysical exploration, the instructions being executable by one or more processors, to cause performance of operations and a data store, generating a gravity dip map of the geographical area by combining the dip surface with the gravity anomaly map and displaying, on a display device, a visual representation of the gravity dip map of the geographical area wherein colors of the visual representation represent the values of the gravity map) are not an improvement to a computer or a technology, the claims do not apply the judicial exception with a particular machine, the claims do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing nor do the claims apply the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment such that the claims as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. These limitations at best are merely implementing an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea - see MPEP 2106.05(f). Under Step 2B, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements individually or in combination such as the system comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations and one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices storing instructions for geophysical exploration, the instructions being executable by one or more processors, to cause performance of operations and a data store, generating a gravity dip map of the geographical area by combining the dip surface with the gravity anomaly map and displaying, on a display device, a visual representation of the gravity dip map of the geographical area wherein colors of the visual representation represent the values of the gravity map (as evidenced by para [0052]-0064] of applicant’s own specification) are well understood, routine and conventional in the field. Dependent claims 2-6, 9-14, 16-20 also do not include additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because the additional elements either individually or in combination are merely an extension of the abstract idea itself by further showing determining a location within the geographical area to drill a well based on the gravity dip map and identifying locations of maximum curvature of the dip surface and determining locations within the geographical area to perform seismic exploration measurements based on the gravity dip map and the identified locations of maximum curvature and wherein generating the gravity dip map is independent from applying high pass, band pass and low pass filters to the gravity anomaly map and wherein generating a dip surface comprises scaling the gravity anomaly values based on a desired range of dip angles and wherein the gravity anomaly values represent Bouguer gravity anomaly values. Dependent claims 2-3, 9-10, 16, 17 do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements individually or in combination such as generating control commands to control remote drilling equipment to drill the well and generating a visual representation of lineaments of the geographical area based on the gravity dip map and the identified locations of maximum curvature of the dip surface (as evidenced by para [0052]-0064] of applicant’s own specification) are well understood, routine and conventional in the field.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 5-6, 8, 12-13, 15, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (CN 110989032 A) (hereinafter Liu) (reference 1 from the 10/18/24 IDS) in view of Jaffal et al. "Gravity and magnetic investigations in the Haouz basin, Morocco. Interpretation and mining implications" (hereinafter Jaffal) (reference 2 from the 10/18/24 IDS)
Claims 1, 8 and 15:
Liu, as shown, discloses the following limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15:
A method (and corresponding system and non-transitory machine-readable storage device) for geophysical exploration (see abstract, showing field for geophysical exploration), the method comprising: accessing, from a data store, measured gravity values for a geographical area (p. 2, showing organizing and analyzing the original gravity data at further step (1));
modeling gravity values for the geographical area (p. 2-3, where the grid processing of the Bouguer data is a type of modeling given broadest reasonable interpretation);
determining gravity anomaly values based on the measured gravity values and the modeled gravity values (p. 2-3, showing obtaining gravity anomaly data calculated);
generating a gravity anomaly map of the geographical area based on the determined gravity anomaly values and physical locations in the geographical area associated with the determined gravity anomaly values (p. 4, showing mapping of gravity anomaly in an area);
generating a dip surface representing inclinations of the geographical area based on the gravity anomaly map (p. 2-4, showing inclination angle processing as part of step 4);
generating a gravity dip map of the geographical area by combining the dip surface with the gravity anomaly map (p. 2-4, showing where the tilt angle gravity anomaly summed with background gravity anomaly can be considered combining)
Liu, however, do not specifically disclose wherein colors of the visual representation represent the values of the gravity map. In analogous art, Jaffal discloses the following limitations:
displaying, on a display device, a visual representation of the gravity dip map of the geographical area wherein colors of the visual representation represent the values of the gravity map (Figs, 2-5, where the shades of gray and the different tones shows different colors would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art)
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Jaffal with Liu because including a gravity dip map with colors representing the values enables more effective mining decisions based on certain locations (see Jaffal, p. 1)
Moreover, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to include the paper on gravity anomalies on local geology as taught by Jaffal in the gradient horizontal fracture identification method based on inclination angle of Liu, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 5, 12 and 19:
Further, Liu discloses the following limitations:
wherein generating the gravity dip map is independent from applying high pass, band pass and low pass filters to the gravity anomaly map (p. 2-3, Step 2 does not explicitly show the use of high or low band filters)
Claims 6, 13 and 20:
Further, Liu discloses the following limitations:
wherein generating a dip surface comprises scaling the gravity anomaly values based on a desired range of dip angle (p. 4, showing variable scale processing performed on the tilt gravity anomaly)
Claim 7, 14:
Further, Liu discloses the following limitations:
wherein the gravity anomaly values represent Bouguer gravity anomaly values (p. 2-4, showing grid processing basedon Bouguer gravity anomaly data)
Claims 2, 9 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu and Jaffal, as applied above, and further in view of Berard et al. (US 20170205531 A1) (hereinafter Berard).
Claims 2, 9 and 16:
Liu and Jaffal do not explicitly disclose generating control commands to control remote drilling equipment to drill the well. In analogous art, Berard discloses the following limitations:
determining a location within the geographical area to drill a well based on the gravity dip map (see para [0098], "In FIG. 2, the sedimentary basin 210, which is a geologic environment, includes horizons, faults, one or more geobodies and facies formed over some period of geologic time. These features are distributed in two or three dimensions in space, for example, with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system (e.g., x, y and z) or other coordinate system (e.g., cylindrical, spherical, etc.). As shown, the model building method 220 includes a data acquisition block 224 and a model geometry block 228. Some data may be involved in building an initial model and, thereafter, the model may optionally be updated in response to model output, changes in time, physical phenomena, additional data, etc. As an example, data for modeling may include one or more of the following: depth or thickness maps and fault geometries and timing from seismic, remote-sensing, electromagnetic, gravity, outcrop and well log data. Furthermore, data may include depth and thickness maps stemming from facies variations (e.g., due to seismic unconformities) assumed to following geological events (“iso” times) and data may include lateral facies variations (e.g., due to lateral variation in sedimentation characteristics)." and see para [0115], "FIG. 3 shows an example of an acquisition technique 340 to acquire seismic data (see, e.g., data 360). As an example, a system may process data acquired by the technique 340, for example, to allow for direct or indirect management of sensing, drilling, injecting, extracting, etc., with respect to a geologic environment. In turn, further information about the geologic environment may become available as feedback (e.g., optionally as input to the system). As an example, an operation may pertain to a reservoir that exists in a geologic environment such as, for example, a reservoir. As an example, a technique may provide information (e.g., as an output) that may specifies one or more location coordinates of a feature in a geologic environment, one or more characteristics of a feature in a geologic environment, etc."); and
generating control commands to control remote drilling equipment to drill the well (see para [0265], "As to the example scenario 2140, a geologic environment may be outfitted with equipment 2142 and an associated computing system 2144 that can process information and, for example, issues instructions, commands, etc. to deploy, position, retrieve, operate, etc. equipment in a bore 2148 that includes a portion in a substantially lateral extent of the geologic environment. In such an example, a sub-surface tool 2152 may acquire data 2154 that may be processed via the computing system 2144, for example, to output stress information 2160 for at least a portion of the geologic environment. As an example, a plan 2162 for the bore 2148 may be adjusted and/or drilling of the bore 2148 may be adjusted via control of the equipment 2142. As illustrated, the plan 2162 may be a multibore plan for drilling multiple bores from a pad. As an example, a lateral portion of a bore may be oriented with respect to stress, for example, to facilitate hydraulic fracturing, to provide for bore wall integrity, etc.").
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Berard with Liu and Jaffal because including commands for the remote drilling provides a real world use to the exploration of resources (see Berard, para [0001]-[0003]).
Moreover, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to include the method for geological modeling workflow as taught by Berard in the Liu and Jaffal combination, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 10-11, 17-18 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Smith et al. (US 2015/0219788 A1), a method of processing gravity gradient data indicative of an output generated by an airborne gravity gradiometer that is moving along a flight path over a terrain
Sun et al. (CN 107765341 A), a method for determining the residual density of the stratum by respectively carrying out gravity and manual earthquake exploration on ground, obtaining gravity and seismic data, the seismic data to layer interpretation, determining lower interface space position on the target layer, a bonding layer the interpretation result and field exposure head data. building underground stratum structure frame; the gravity data for abnormal separating, extracting local gravity exceptional weight caused by target stratum; under the constraint of the stratum structure frame, grid dividing the target stratum; data according to geology, drilling and so on. determining the grid remaining density initial value interval, performing optimal search the remaining density of each grid in the initial numerical value interval, the continuous iteration correction, finally determining the remaining density of each lattice
Kebede et al. "Mapping geologic structures from Gravity and Digital Elevation Models in the Ziway-Shala Lakes basin; central Main Ethiopian rift", a study on attempts to delineate subsurface lineaments for the tectonically and volcanically active region of the Ziway-Shala Lakes basin, central Main Ethiopian rift
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUJAY KONERU whose telephone number is 571-270-3409. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Patricia Munson can be reached on 571- 270-5396. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUJAY KONERU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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