Pierce Butler

“ Packers and pipes with valves in them have long been in use to get what is below the packer free from what is above and without removing what is above. Whether a large quantity from a finished well or a simple sample from an unfinished well does not materially alter the method. Water has always been encountered in oil wells; the drilling fluid is only very muddy water voluntarily put and kept in the well for special reasons. ”

“ It rises through the space between the pipe and the earth walls of the well and carries to the surface cuttings made by the bit. It holds back and seals the penetrated formations. Hydrostatic pressure of the drilling fluid is very great and the fluid in a penetrated formation will not flow into the well unless it is under greater pressure. It is often desirable to secure a sample of the fluid within a stratum in the bottom of the well without removing the drilling fluid. The patent in suit is for a method and apparatus intended to accomplish that purpose. ”

“ Franklin did not intend to get a sample by raising the pipe, but intended to keep from getting a sample by making the valve a leaky one that would let the contents escape as the pipe is raised. He expected to get what was below by natural flow just as Simmons, applicant for the patent in suit, says that is to be preferred. It would be no invention to substitute a valve that would not leak for one that was intended to and does leak on withdrawal. It would be no invention to use the Franklin device to sample a well instead of using it to flow the well. ”

“ That apparatus includes a single string of pipe lowered into the well, a packer on the string, and a valve at the lower end. These simple and well-known elements are to be used by lowering the pipe into the well with the valve closed against the drilling fluid until the packer is set, then by opening the valve to admit cognate fluid below the packer, then by closing the valve so as to prevent the drilling fluid from entering when the packer is released and the pipe drawn up with its contents. No novelty and certainly no invention can be claimed for the method. ”

“ The process consists of 'lowering an empty string of pipe,' 'setting the packer,' 'opening the valved inlet,' 'closing the valved inlet,' 'raising the pipe so closed to remove an entrapped sample and the packer from the well.' The result to be achieved by the method claimed to be new is precisely the same as that for the attainment of which the apparatus found to be old was contrived. ”

“ Plaintiffs have a large business under the patent in suit. Prior to the discovery there was no apparatus or method in use for testing productivity of formations in wells containing drilling fluid except by putting in a casing and removing the fluid. ”

“ Expansible and removable packers with pipes through them to reach the oil, gas, or other desired fluid beneath and rat-hole packers set by the weight of the pipe pressing them down and removable by simply lifting them are shown in earlier patents. ”