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 without traverse of Species I in the reply filed on 18 February 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 12-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Species II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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.
Claims 1 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dusterhoft et al., U.S. 2004/0040707.
Dusterhoft et al. discloses a coiled tubing system (fig 1, [0054]) having a coiled tubing string (fig 1, coiled tubing 100, [0018], [0054]) configured to couple to a downhole tool (fig 4, 200; [0058]) to move the downhole tool along a geothermal well ([0028]), an injector head (fig 1, 58; [0056]) configured to control movement (via controller 54, [0091]) of the coiled tubing string (100) and the downhole tool (200) along the geothermal well, sensors (fig 4, sensor 207; [0090]) configured to capture sensor data indicative of a distance traveled by ([0091]; the means provided for depth determination) the coiled tubing string along the geothermal well; and a controller (54) configured to control operation of the injector head ([0055] and [0113]) to move the coiled tubing string (100) and the downhole tool (200) to a measured depth ([0082]) within the geothermal well that corresponds to an intersection of a feature (fig 1, interval 32 and zones 34-36) with the geothermal well based on the sensor data (detector 207 data, [0082]) received from the sensor(s).
Dusterhoft et al. discloses a method for locating a downhole tool ([0081]; Fig. 4, the bottom hole assembly includes a detector or sensor 207 used to locate perforations 37-39) in a geothermal well ([0006]) using a coiled tubing system (fig 1, [0054]) by analyzing subsurface data (via sensors 207, [0091]) to determine respective locations of a plurality of features (perforations) that intersect the geothermal well, operating, via a controller (54) an injector head (injector head 58) of the coiled tubing system (fig 1, [0054]) to deploy the downhole tool (200) toward a first location (interval 32) of a first feature (any of zones 34-36) of the plurality of features, the first location having a measured depth ([0082]) along the geothermal well ([0028]), receiving, via one or more sensors (207), sensor data indicative of a distance traveled by ([0091]; the means provided for depth determination) a coiled tubing string (100) of the coiled tubing system coupled to the downhole tool, a controller (54) determining distance traveled by ([0091]) the coiled tubing string corresponds to the measured depth based on the sensor data; and causing, via the controller, the injector head to stop movement ([0118], movement is stopped for treating the zones 34-35, fig 10a-d) of the coiled tubing string in response to determining (via 54) that the distance traveled by the coiled tubing string corresponds to the measured depth of the first feature (any of perforations 34-36).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 and 18-20 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 KENNETH L THOMPSON whose telephone number is (571)272-7037. The examiner can normally be reached Weekdays; 9:00-5:00, est.
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4 March 2026
/KENNETH L THOMPSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3676