Appeal No. 2002-0859
Application 09/193,444
As redundancy, a further channel 220 couples the bottom node 210
to another node upstream, which may be a surface device, for
example. See page 4 of Appellant’s specification.
Independent claim 1 present in the application is
representative of the claimed invention and is reproduced as
follows:
1. A system for use in a well having completion zones,
comprising:
a surface node;
a plurality of downhole nodes positioned in the completion
zones; and
a communications link extending into the well and coupled to
the surface node and downhole nodes, the communications link
including channels coupling successive nodes, the surface node
and downhole nodes coupled in a loop by the channels.
References
The references relied on by the Examiner are as follows:
Gerstel et al. (Gerstel) 5,793,746 Aug. 11, 1998
Tubel et al. (Tubel) 5,959,547 Sep. 28, 1999
(Filed Sep. 17, 1997)
Rejection at Issue
Claims 1 through 10, 12 through 16, 18 through 24, and 26
through 29 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Tubel in view of Gerstel.
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