Appeal No. 2001-1702
Application 09/186,429
of the claims remaining in this application. Claims 2, 5 and 11
have been canceled.
Appellants’ invention relates to a vessel used in
floating hydrocarbon fuel production systems and, more particu-
larly, to a vessel having a turret mechanism which enables the
vessel to rotate about a vertical axis relative to risers linked
to underwater oil wells and also to the ship’s turret mechanism.
The essence of appellants’ invention addresses a passive stabi-
lizer body projecting from a lower part of the hull of the vessel
for increasing the vessel’s directional stability in relation to
environmental conditions when the vessel is tethered by the
turret mechanism and risers to the subsea wells. Independent
claims 1, 7 and 13 are representative of the subject matter
before us on appeal and a copy of those claims may be found in
the Appendix to appellants’ brief.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Pangalila 3,757,723 Sept. 11, 1973
Carlsen 4,266,496 May 12, 1981
Berne 4,273,063 June 16, 1981
Borseth 5,701,835 Dec. 30, 1997
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