Edit: however, my original point regarding the opinion was, the SC did not just say this fails 101 because it's not new, but they went on to say that "long prevalent" practices (i.e. prior art) can make something "abstract". This, to me, simply makes no sense.
In what I've seen of the Supreme Court jurisprudence on patent-eligibility, "abstract idea" seems to have (based on the way it is used, not any explicit statement) evolved into a sort of a term of art for things that fail both the "new and useful" and "process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter" requirements of Section 101.
I would say that this is one of the ways in which case law gets unnecessarily and confusingly self-referential and loses its visible connection to the underlying enactments that it is interpreting, which makes it less accessible and avoidably opaque. But good luck getting people on the Supreme Court that see that as something important to minimize.
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In what I've seen of the Supreme Court jurisprudence on patent-eligibility, "abstract idea" seems to have (based on the way it is used, not any explicit statement) evolved into a sort of a term of art for things that fail both the "new and useful" and "process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter" requirements of Section 101.
I would say that this is one of the ways in which case law gets unnecessarily and confusingly self-referential and loses its visible connection to the underlying enactments that it is interpreting, which makes it less accessible and avoidably opaque. But good luck getting people on the Supreme Court that see that as something important to minimize.