2DETAILED 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 Objections
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: The article “The” in line 2 should be lower cased. Appropriate correction is required.
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, 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Falgout, Sr., U.S. 7,287,607.
Regarding claim 1, Falgout, Sr. discloses a downhole mud motor (col. 3, lines 35-41) in a wellbore (fig 1, wellbore 4) having a driveshaft housing (upper and lower housing portions 1, 2, fig 1 and/or 20, 22, fig 10), a driveshaft (fig. 3, motor drive shaft 7; col. 3, lines 48-61 and/or shafts 24, 25, 26; col. 6, lines 6-21, fig 10) rotatably disposed in the driveshaft housing (1, 2; 20, 22), a bearing mandrel (mandrel at bearing 20a, fig 10 and/or shaft bearing not shown; col. 3, lines 41-42) coupled to the driveshaft (7 and/or 24-26), a bend adjustment assembly (deflection drive assembly; col. 3, lines 48-55) including a first configuration that provides a first deflection angle (fig 3, fig 10, CLU, CLL; col. 3, lines 57-61) between a longitudinal axis of the driveshaft housing and a longitudinal axis (deflections relative to bearing centerline CLB) of the bearing mandrel, wherein the bend adjustment assembly includes a second configuration that provides a second deflection angle between the longitudinal axis of the driveshaft housing and the longitudinal axis of the bearing mandrel that is different from the first deflection angle, and wherein the bend adjustment assembly is configured to shift (col. 4, lines 24-42) between the first configuration and the second configuration when positioned in the wellbore; and a locking assembly (fig 3, lugs and slots 8c, 7d; fig 10, lugs 21a, 25a) having a valve element (check valve 9a; col. 4, lines 18-23), the locking assembly having a locked configuration configured to lock the bend adjustment assembly into one of the first configuration and the second configuration (fig 1 and two shows the configurations) and corresponding to a closed state of the valve element, and an unlocked configuration (col. 4, line 64 – col. 5, line 5, operation of the clutch is dependent on the check valve opening/closing) corresponding to an open state of the valve element.
Re: claim 3, the reference discloses the check valve (9a) element is pressure activated.
Re: claim 4, the reference discloses the locking assembly (fig 3, lugs and slots 8c, 7d; fig 10, lugs 21a, 25a) having a locking sleeve (fig 3, annular piston 8a; col. 4, lines 12-15 and/or fig 10, sleeve piston 21; col. 5, lines 12-15) having a locked position associated with the locked configuration and an unlocked position axially spaced from the locked position (col. 2, lines 46-55) and associated with the unlocked configuration, and wherein the locking sleeve is configured to shift from the locked position to the unlocked position in response to shifting of the valve element from the closed state to the open state (col. 4, lines 18-24).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 5 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. Claims 6-11 and 13-20 are allowed.
Claim 12 is objected to but would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the objection above.
Conclusion
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29 January 2026
/KENNETH L THOMPSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3676