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 .
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DeFosse (US 20100132949-appears on the PTO-892).
DeFosse teaches a process for preparing a friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid at a central location which can be readily transported to an oil or gas well in a formation at a well site, comprising: preparing a mixture of polymer and water at the central location by shearing the polymer in the water in a high shear environment to create the friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid (see abstract). Additives such as scale inhibitors and the like are added to the water or the sheared friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid prior to pumping it to the remote well site (see para 0015; 0043).
Polymers useful in the DeFosse include friction reducing polymers such as partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides, polyacrylamides and polymethacrylamides, cross-linked polyacrylamides and cross-linked polymethacrylamides, polyacrylic acid and polymethacrylic acid, polyacrylates, polymers of N-substituted acrylamides, co-polymers of acrylamide with another ethylenically unsaturated monomer co-polymerizable therewith, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS), polyvinyl pyrollidones, biopolymers such as xanthan, guars, derivitized guars, derivitized cellulose and other mixtures of polymers (see para 0039). DeFosse meets the limitations of the claims other than the differences that are set forth below.
DeFosse does not exemplify a system wherein the friction reducing liquid is present with the scale inhibitor. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to prepare such a system because DeFosse specifically teaches preparing the liquid and he teaches that a scale inhibitor may be added to the liquid.
With respect to the amount of scale inhibitor that may be used, a prima facie case of obviousness exists because it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to optimize the proportions of the scale inhibitor through routine experimentation for the best results. As to optimization of results, a patent will not be granted based upon the optimization of result effective variables when the optimization is obtained through routine experimentation unless there is a showing of unexpected results which properly rebuts the prima facie case of obviousness. See In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 276, 205 USPQ 215, 219 (CCPA 1980). See also In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 1578, 16 USPQ2d 1934, 1936-37 (Fed. Cir. 1990), and In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
Claims 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DeFosse (US 20100132949) as applied to the claims above, and further in view of Olajire (A review of oilfield scale management technology for oil and gas production-appears on the PTO-892).
DeFosse has been discussed above. DeFosse does not teach the specifics regarding the scale inhibitor. However, Olajire teaches the difference.
Olajire teaches various scale inhibitors that are used in oil and gas wells (see abstract). Olajire teaches that conventional scale inhibitors include organic polymers (see section 6.2.1). Olajire teaches that polyacrylic acid, among other homopolymers, are commonly used scale inhibitors (see Table 4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have used polyacrylic acid or another homopolymer as the scale inhibitor because DeFosse specifically teaches the use of a scale inhibitor with the friction reducing fluid and Olajire teaches that polyacrylic acid and other homopolymers are common and conventional scale inhibitors used in the oil and gas well environment.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The prior art teaches the general state of the oil and gas wells management.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CEPHIA D TOOMER whose telephone number is (571)272-1126. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday.
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/CEPHIA D TOOMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1771 18666469/20260712
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