So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish

In a recent precedential decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision, upholding an examiner's final rejection of claims to a fishing method as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In re Rudy, Case 2019-2301, Slip Op. (Fed. Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). Appeals to both the Board and the Federal Circuit were cast by a pro se applicant, who is also a patent attorney.

The application, originally filed in 1989, includes a prosecution history that is stuffed to the gills, including multiple visits to the Board and a prior Federal Circuit appeal where the court affirmed a Board conclusion that then-pending claims were obvious. In re Rudy, 558 F. App'x. 1011 (Fed. Cir. 2014).