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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the subject matter of claims 2-9 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter may be introduced.
The drawings are objected to because Figures 2 and 4 lack suitable descriptive legends necessary for understanding of the drawings (see 37 CFR 1.84 (o)). The drawings are further objected to because Figures 2, 4, 5, and 12 lack reference numbers necessary for an understanding of the drawings relative to the Detailed Description of the Invention. No new matter may be introduced.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: Figures 1-3, 5-7, and 10-12 are not referenced at all in the Detailed Description of the Invention. Further, there is only a passing mention of Figure 8 and no clear correlation between the specification and what is shown in the drawing. Finally, the specification lacks reference numbers necessary for an understanding of the Detailed Description of the Invention relative to the drawings.
Appropriate correction is required and no new matter may be introduced.
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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception, namely a mathematical concept and/or mental process, without significantly more.
The claims are directed to a method for identifying a type of a shale laminaset based on electrical imaging logging. Claim 1 recites, for example, loading and decoding electrical imaging data, preprocessing the data to generate image data, converting data types, setting a blank strip to a null value, equalizing an image by setting a window length and stride, clustering the data using K-means++ and Euclidean distance calculations, binarizing clustered values, performing connected-component labeling, fitting a sinusoidal bedding interface, and calculating development density parameters. Claims 2–9 further recite mathematical calculations, including probability distributions, repeated clustering iterations, component labeling operations, vectorized residual calculations, Jacobian matrix calculations, regularized increment-direction calculations, and convergence testing. These limitations, considered both individually and in combination, recite mathematical relationships, formulas, calculations, and data analysis operations that fall within the judicial exceptions of mathematical concepts and mental processes.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements merely apply the recited analysis to electrical imaging logging data and do not recite any particular improvement to the functioning of a computer, imaging system, logging instrument, or other technology. Rather, the claims are directed to the abstract use of mathematical and analytical techniques to classify shale laminaset types from data.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the remaining limitations are conventional data-processing steps and generic computational operations performed at a high level of generality. The claims do not recite an inventive concept, a non-conventional machine, or a particular technological implementation that would transform the judicial exception into patent-eligible subject matter. Accordingly, claims 1–9 are not patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN W MILLER whose telephone number is 571-272-7353. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Colleen Fauz can be reached at 571-272-1667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN W MILLER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2422
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