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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims status
Claims 1-20 are pending as the applicant filed on 02/20/2024.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
2. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112The 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 1-20 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 1-20, the terms “bad hole” “inappropriate” are vague and a relative term that renders the claim indefinite. The terms “bad hole” “inappropriate” are 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 “bad hole” “inappropriate” within the scope of the claim had been accomplished because nothing within the disclosure establishes when a sufficient “bad hole” “inappropriate” occur.
Note: 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.
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 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.
Claim 1, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a well log quality improvement method comprising: performing a quality controlling operation on a well log by inputting a well log into a determination model for training to determine a bad hole section associated with a bad hole which is data in the well log that is inappropriate for use in a well log interpretation appears is an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of performing a conditioning operation on the well log by replacing the bad hole section included in the well log with alternative data are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional elements of normalizing a distribution of data of the well log according to a distribution of data of a reference well log obtained from a reference well appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 1 not eligible.
Claim 12, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a well log quality improvement apparatus comprising: a processor operable to execute computer codes and instructions; a storage unit coupled to be in communication with the processor and configured to store a program code; and an input/output interface coupled to be in communication with the processor and configured to receive a command from a user and visually display data to the user, wherein the processor is operable to execute the program code to perform:
performing a quality controlling operation on a well log by inputting a well log into a determination model to train the determination model and to determine a bad hole section associated with a bad hole which is data in the well log that is inappropriate for use in a well log interpretation appears is an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of performing a conditioning operation on the well log by replacing the bad hole section included in the well log with alternative data are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional elements of normalizing a distribution of data of the well log according to a distribution of data of a reference well log obtained from a reference well appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 12 not eligible.
Claims 2, 13 related to setting a condition and a determination model for determining the bad hole; analyzing the well log by using the condition and the determination model; and displaying a section determined as the bad hole section, wherein the displaying of the section includes at least one of a cross-plot in which data are displayed as points according to a feature of an X-axis and a feature of a Y-axis, a depth-plot in which the section determined as the bad hole for features selected as an input feature is displayed, and a bad hole score plot in which: bad hole scores are sorted from a small value to a large value; a line graph is drawn; and a point where a slope rapidly changes is displayed, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 2, 13 not eligible.
Claims 3, 14 related to wherein the setting of the condition and the determination model includes inputting a selection a user by providing: a first interface screen in which a well log file stored in a storage unit is selected, a position of a line displaying a feature unit is selected, and a value determined as null data is input; a second interface screen in which each column where a name of a well, a depth, a record of whether or not the bad hole exists, and the input feature are positioned is selected as variables; a third interface screen in which at least one of a None, a MinMaxScaler, a RobustScaler, or a StandardScaler is selected as a scaler; a fourth interface screen in which at least of a KNN, a COPOD, an Iforest, and an OCSVM is selected as a determination model; and a fifth interface screen in which a parameter of the determination model is input, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 3, 14 not eligible.
Claims 4, 15 related to wherein the analyzing of the well log includes, in response to multiple parameters that are simultaneously input in an interface screen where the parameter of the determination model is input, generating each determination model for the multiple parameters at once, and integrating and displaying results, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 3, 14 not eligible.
Claims 4, 15 related to wherein the analyzing of the well log includes, in response to multiple parameters that are simultaneously input in an interface screen where the parameter of the determination model is input, generating each determination model for the multiple parameters at once, and integrating and displaying results, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 4, 14 not eligible.
Claims 5, 16 related to merging results of determining the bad hole section with various conditions for one well log, and wherein the merging of the results includes displaying multiple results determining the bad hole section in depth-plots, and generating a bad hole determination result by reflecting an area selected from the depth-plots in a merged depth-plot, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 5,16 not eligible.
Claims 6, 17 related to setting a condition and a generation model for generating the alternative data; replacing null data of the well log with the alternative data by generating the alternative data using the generation model and the condition are used and reflecting a depth trend; matching a trend of synthetic data generated using an empirical formula to a trend of the well log replaced with the alternative data by adjusting the synthetic data using an auto trend matching method; and replacing the bad hole section of the well log with the synthetic data that is adjusted, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 6, 17 not eligible.
Claims 7, 18 related to data is configured perform any one of: a first operation in which a moving average as the generation model is used for generating the alternative data by using data that is not the null data of the well log and the null data is replaced with the alternative data; a second operation in which a first polynomial fitting as the generation model is used for generating the alternative data in which a depth trend trained from data that is not the null data of the well log is reflected and the null data is replaced with the alternative data; and a third operation in which a second polynomial fitting as the generation model is used for generating the alternative data by reflecting a depth trend trained from data that is not null data of a neighbor well log and by using data that is not the null data of the well log, and then by replacing the null data with the alternative data, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 7, 18 not eligible.
Claims 8, 19 related to acquiring a trend of the well log replaced with the alternative data by using a moving average method; acquiring a trend of the synthetic data generated from the empirical formula by using the moving average method; and matching the trend of the synthetic data with the trend of the well log replaced with the alternative data by adjusting a window size of a moving average, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 8,19 not eligible.
Claims 9, 20 related to setting a condition for matching a data distribution of a target well log to a data distribution of the reference well log based on a condition and a trend for visualizing the well log; displaying a trend of the target well log and a trend of the reference well log by using the condition; and matching the trend of the well log to the trend of the reference well log by adjusting a trend of the well log, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 9, 20 not eligible.
Claim 10 related to calculating the trend of the target well log and the trend of the reference well log by using a moving average method; and displaying the trend of the target well log and the trend of the reference well log as plots based on the reference well log, the target well log, a visualization type, a bin value, ranges of features and depths to be visualized that are input upon setting the condition, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 10 not eligible.
Claim 11 related to filtering feature data by using a filter; calculating the trend by using filtered data; and adjusting overall data of the target well log so that the trend of the target well log is similar to the trend of the reference well log, its recites further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 11 not eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 12, 2, 5, 9, 11, 13, 16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Tian (US Patent Application Publication 2023/0083651 A1. Date Published Mar. 16, 2023)
Regarding claim 1:
Tian described a well log quality improvement (0217, quality control) method comprising: performing a quality controlling operation on a well log by inputting a well log into a determination model for training to determine a bad hole section associated with a bad hole which is data in the well log that is inappropriate for use in a well log interpretation (0054-0055, different dataset); performing a conditioning operation on the well log by replacing the bad hole section included in the well log with alternative data (0054-0055, filtering operation); and normalizing a distribution of data of the well log according to a distribution of data of a reference well log obtained from a reference well (0083, average operation).
Regarding claim 12:
Tian described a well log quality improvement apparatus comprising:
a processor operable to execute computer codes and instructions;
a storage unit coupled to be in communication with the processor and configured to store a program code; and an input/output interface coupled to be in communication with the processor and configured to receive a command from a user and visually display data to the user, wherein the processor is operable to execute the program code to perform (0125, use computer):
performing a quality controlling operation on a well log by inputting a well log into a determination model to train the determination model and to determine a bad hole section associated with a bad hole which is data in the well log that is inappropriate for use in a well log interpretation (0054-0055, different dataset);
performing a conditioning operation on the well log by replacing the bad hole section included in the well log with alternative data (0054-0055, filtering operation); and normalizing a distribution of data of the well log according to a distribution of data of a reference well log obtained from a reference well (0083, average operation).
Regarding claims 2, 13 Tian further described related to setting a condition and a determination model for determining the bad hole; analyzing the well log by using the condition and the determination model; and displaying a section determined as the bad hole section, wherein the displaying of the section includes at least one of a cross-plot in which data are displayed as points according to a feature of an X-axis and a feature of a Y-axis (fig. 4), a depth-plot in which the section determined as the bad hole for features selected as an input feature is displayed, and a bad hole score plot in which: bad hole scores are sorted from a small value to a large value; a line graph is drawn; and a point where a slope rapidly changes is displayed.
Regarding claims 5, 16 Tian further described merging results of determining the bad hole section with various conditions for one well log, and wherein the merging of the results includes displaying multiple results determining the bad hole section in depth-plots, and generating a bad hole determination result by reflecting an area selected from the depth-plots in a merged depth-plot (0146, different depth, fig. 7).
Regarding claims 9, 20 Tian further described setting a condition for matching a data distribution of a target well log to a data distribution of the reference well log based on a condition and a trend for visualizing the well log (0054-0055, filtering); displaying a trend of the target well log and a trend of the reference well log by using the condition (0054-0055, filtering); and matching the trend of the well log to the trend of the reference well log by adjusting a trend of the well log (0054-0055, filtering log);.
.
Regarding claim 11 Tian further described filtering feature data by using a filter; calculating the trend by using filtered data; and adjusting overall data of the target well log so that the trend of the target well log is similar to the trend of the reference well log (0054-0055, filtering).
Contact information
5. 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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TURNER SHELBY, can be reached on 571-272-6334. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TUNG S LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Technology Center 2800
June 17, 2026
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