Rudy finally gets his Whale

Christopher Rudy filed his fishing hook patent software again in 1988 with a file-wrapper-continuation in 1989.  At the time he was previously a patent lawyer and so labored his possess case.  But, the USPTO made available some resistance.  The BPAI/PTAB issued three distinctive viewpoints on document, and the Federal Circuit also issued a 2020 choice keeping that some of the statements ended up directed to the unpatentable abstract of “selecting a fishing hook based upon noticed h2o circumstances.”  In re Rudy, 956 F.3d 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2020). Again on remand, Rudy cancelled the offending claims and finally obtained his U.S. Patent No. 11,406,092.  As a pre-GATT patent, the expression must last for 17-many years from issuance.  That will make a pretty excellent run going forward: the patent will situation 51 years just after its first submitting day.  This is the initially pre-GATT patent issued because 2020.  About the previous five many years, the Business office has issued about 25 (none to Gil Hyatt). A number of these ended up held in abeyance owing to DOD Secrecy Orders. As considerably as I know, the only one particular currently being litigated is 9,674,560 owned by Individualized Media Communications.

= = =

Rudy’s primary discovery was that fishing-entice choice is not a just one-measurement-fits-all condition.  He significantly famous that things these kinds of as drinking water-clarity and light-weight depth at fishing depth will affect entice coloration choice.  The patent involves a wonderful desk:

The just lately issued patent features a selection of apparatus and technique claims.  My most loved is No. 16, which promises a surefire approach for catching a fish.

16. A technique to catch fish, comprising measures of

(1) observing clarity of drinking water to be fished to ascertain whether or not the drinking water is distinct, stained or muddy,

(2) measuring light transmittance at a depth in the drinking water where by a fishing hook is to be positioned, and then

(3) deciding upon a shade of the fishing hook to be applied by matching the noticed water problems ((1) and (2)) with a coloration [from the table above]

then attaching the selected hook to a fishing line,

then inserting the hooked up, selected hook in the depth in the h2o where fishing is to acquire position,

and then catching the fish with the connected, picked hook,

wherein the fishing hook used is disintegrated from but is normally connectable to a fishing entice or other deal with and has a shaft part, a bend part linked to the shaft portion, and a barb or issue at the terminus of the bend, and wherein the fishing hook made use of is manufactured of a ideal materials, which permits transmittance of gentle therethrough and is coloured.