In In re Rudy, [2019-2301] (April 24, 2020), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB decision that claims of U.S. patent application Serial No. 07/425,360 entitled “Eyeless, Knotless, Colorable and/or Translucent/Transparent Fishing Hooks with Associatable Apparatus and Methods,” were directed to ineligible subject matter for patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

As claimed, the user observes the clarity of water to determine whether the water is “clear, stained, or muddy,” measures light transmittance at a depth in the water where a fishing hook is to be placed, and selects a colored or colorless fishing hook based on the clarity and light transmittance of the water, in accordance with a chart.

Mr. Rudy originally filed the ’360 application on October 21, 1989. It has undergone a lengthy prosecution since then, including numerous amendments and petitions, four Board appeals, and a previous trip to the Federal Circuit.

The Board’s reasoning and conclusion were fully in accord with the relevant case law. Applying the Supreme Court’s two-step Alice/Mayo framework, The Federal Circuit concluded, as the Board did, that the claim is directed to the abstract idea of selecting a fishing hook based on observed water conditions. The Federal Circuit said that the claims require nothing more than collecting information (water clarity and light transmittance) and analyzing that information (by applying the chart included in the claim), which collectively amount to the abstract idea of selecting a fishing hook based on the observed water conditions.

Mr. Rudy’s argument that fishing was a practical technological field was irrelevant to the fact that the claims at issue were ineligible. While Mr. Rudy further argued that determining the light transmittance with accuracy could not be done mentally, the Federal Circuit found that the plain language of the claims encompasses mental determination. The Federal Circuit also rejected Mr. Rudy’s attempt to invoke the machine or transformation test, finding that the claims do not actually recite or require the purported transformation that Mr. Rudy relies upon.

Turning to step two of the Alice/Mayo inquiry, the Federal Circuit said the three elements of the claim (observing water clarity, measuring light transmittance, and selecting the color of the hook to be used) are each themselves abstract, being mental processes akin to data collection or analysis. Considered as an ordered combination, these three steps merely repeat the abstract idea of selecting a fishing hook based on observed water conditions. The Federal Circuit said that the transformation of an abstract idea into a patent-eligible claim requires more than simply stating the abstract idea while adding the words “apply it.”

The Federal Circuit concluded that the claims were directed to ineligible subject matter.