Appeal No. 1997-4397
Application 08/395,698
process" can mean without the drill string needing to be
disassembled or removed from the well. This interpretation
has support in the background of the invention which describes
that prior art U.S. Patent 4,669,554 required pulling the ram
with the sample out of the formation.
The fact that the air line 31 and liquid line 32 are
connected via the sluice 7 to the instrument and control unit
9 does not say anything about the nature of the sluice
connection. The Examiner states that "[g]iven the ubiquitous
presence of such connections in oilfield equipment, the
Examiner suspects that this omission stems not from the
novelty of the connection, but instead from its universal
familiarity" (EA5; see also EA13 referring to the "ubiquitous
swivel-type joint"). This appears to be nothing more than
speculation because the Examiner has not provided any evidence
that swivel-type fluid joints were well known in drilling
equipment; such evidence would have been highly relevant to
the rejection. As far as we are aware, the term "sluice" does
not have any known meaning that would suggest a swivel
connection that permits continuous fluid flow and the Examiner
has not attempted to establish one. We attach a copy of the
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