DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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, 11, 17 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 20020063866 A1.
Regarding claims 1, 11, 17 D1 teaches
1. A sensing system comprising:
a flowmeter(fig. 2) comprising:
low sensitivity coils(26) comprising optical coils for sensing one or more fluid flow parameters of a flowing fluid;[0039]
high sensitivity coils(24) comprising optical coils for sensing the one or more fluid flow parameters of the fluid; and[0038]
wherein the low sensitivity coils are selected and so that an instrument receives data from the low sensitivity coils indicative of the one or more fluid flow parameters during a first period of time; and[0039]
wherein the high sensitivity coils are selected so that the instrument receives data from the high sensitivity coils indicative of the one or more fluid flow parameters during a second period of time.[0038]
11. A method comprising
determining a differential phase change (phase shift)for a flowmeter comprising low and high sensitivity coils used for sensing flow parameters of a fluid; and[0045](phase shift)
processing data from one of the low and high sensitivity coils in response to the determined differential phase change.[0045]+(claim 2)
2. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the low sensitivity coils comprise a first set of optical coils and a second set of optical coils and the high sensitivity coils comprise a third set of optical coils and a fourth set of optical coils.(fig. 2)
3. The sensing system of claim 2, wherein the first set of optical coils are spaced apart on a tubing section according to a first spacing and the second set of optical coils are spaced apart on the tubing section according to a second spacing.(fig. 2 )[0038,0039]
4. The sensing system of claim 3, wherein the third set of optical coils are spaced apart on the tubing section according to the first spacing and the fourth set of optical coils are spaced apart on the tubing section according to the second spacing. (fig. 2 )[0038,0039]
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data is processed from the high sensitivity coils over a first period of time, and the data is processed from the low sensitivity coils over a second period of time. [0038, 0039]
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing a tubing section with the low and high sensitivity coils arranged on the tubing section, the low sensitivity coils comprising optical coils for sensing one or more fluid flow parameters of the fluid, and the high sensitivity coils comprising optical coils for sensing the one or more fluid flow parameters of the fluid, the fluid flowing through the tubing section.(fig. 2 and[0038, 0039] )
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the low sensitivity coils comprise a first and second set of optical coils, and the high sensitivity coils comprise a third and fourth set of optical coils, the providing comprising:
spacing apart on the tubing section the first and third set of optical coils according to a first spacing; and
spacing apart on the tubing section the second and fourth set optical coils according to a second spacing.(fig. 2 [0038, 0039])
15. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the data from the low and high sensitivity coils and selecting the data from one of the low and high sensitivity coils for processing. [0038, 0039]
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising interrogating the low and high sensitivity coils, wherein the data is received from the low and high sensitivity coil in response to the interrogation.(abstract)
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) 8, 9, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
8. The sensing system of claim 1, further comprising the instrument, the instrument being configured to determine whether to select one of the low and high sensitivity coils based on one or more of an assessment of a maximum rate of phase change, a quality factor, differential phase data, reconstructed phase data, an unwrapping algorithm, well conditions, and well equipment control settings.
9. The sensing system of claim 8, wherein the instrument is configured to receive data from the low sensitivity coils and process the data from the low sensitivity coils during the first period of time, and receive data from the high sensitivity coils and process the data from the high sensitivity coils during the second period of time based on the determination.
It is just a matter of common sense that when sensitivity of the first sensor is not enough use the sensitivity of the more sensitive sensor data instead.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
10. The sensing system of claim 1, wherein the instrument comprises:
a processor; and
memory comprising machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions being executable by the processor, the machine-readable instructions comprising a differential phase detector programmed to select one of the high and low sensitivity coils to receive the data indicative of the fluid flow parameters.
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to use processor and memory in order to perform computations on the computer.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 17-20 allowed.
Claims 5-7 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Closes t available prior art does not teach or render obvious combination of the limitation.
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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