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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Species I in the reply filed on December 29, 2025 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 7-10 and 16-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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, 4-6, 12, 14, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Schlumberger (US 2,363,269).
With regard to claim 1, Schlumberger discloses a work string (see any of Figs. 1-4), comprising:
an outer member (see annotated Fig. below);
an inertial mass disposed within the outer member (see annotated Fig. below—note that the identified elements have mass and thus can be considered “inertial mass,” given that they inherently possess some amount of inertia); and
a damping element (see Fig. below—note that whether Schlumberger discloses the molten sulfur being utilized as a damping element is given little patentable weight. Molten sulfur inherently provides a damping function, given that applicant’s specification teaches that such a dampening ability is a property of liquid sulfur—see primarily paragraph 0019) between the outer member and the inertial mass, the damping element including a liquid (i.e. molten sulfur) having a viscosity that increases with increasing temperature (applicant’s specification explains that liquid sulfur has this property—see paragraph 0019).
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With regard to claim 4, the liquid is one of:
(i) liquid sulfur (Schlumberger teaches liquid sulfur);
(ii) aqueous suspension of calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)₂; and
(iii) aqueous suspension of iron (III) oxide Fe₂O₃.
With regard to claim 5, the outer member (12) is an outer tubular of the work string and the inertial mass is an inner tubular (heater element 22 has a tubular shape and thus can be considered an “inner tubular”) of the work string.
With regard to claim 6, Schlumberger teaches that the work string further comprises one of:
(i) a drill string;
(ii) a production string; and
(iii) a completion string (tubular 34 can at least be considered a “completion string”).
With regard to claim 12, Schlumberger discloses a method of absorbing a vibration at a work string (note that, while Schlumberger does not explicitly discuss absorbing vibration, Schlumberger does provide a liquid sulfur within an outer tubular, and applicant’s specification teaches that such liquid sulfur provides vibration dampening properties), comprising:
disposing a damping element (see annotated Fig. provided above) between an outer member (see Fig. above) and an inertial mass (see Fig. above) disposed within the outer member, wherein the damping element includes a liquid (i.e. molten sulfur) having a viscosity that increases with increasing temperature (applicant’s specification teaches that liquid sulfur has this property at paragraph 0019); and
absorbing the vibration being transferred from the outer member to the inertial mass via the damping element (liquid sulfur inherently provides this function due to its material properties—see applicant’s specification at paragraph 0019).
With regard to claim 14, Schlumberger teaches that the liquid is one of:
(i) liquid sulfur (Schlumberger teaches liquid sulfur);
(ii) aqueous suspension of calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)₂; and
(iii) aqueous suspension of iron (III) oxide Fe₂O₃.
With regard to claim 15, Schlumberger teaches that the outer member (12) is an outer tubular of the work string and the inertial mass is an inner tubular of the work string (element 22 has a tubular shape and thus can be considered an “inner tubular”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 13, and 20 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT E FULLER whose telephone number is (571)272-6300. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30AM - 5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tara Schimpf can be reached at 571-270-7741. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT E FULLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3676