I Called It: Kyle Bass’s First Two IPR Petitions Fail

Kyle Bass, the hedge fund manager who filed a number of inter partes reviewAn adversarial procedure created by the AIA for challenging patents. Intended to be similar to a court proceeding, the parties argue before an Administrative Patent Judge, not a patent examiner. The challenger must show a reasonable likelihood of successfully invalidating one claim before the PTAB will agree to grant a petition for review. petitions against pharmaceutical companies, has struck terror into the shriveled hearts of the pharmaceutical industry. The first petitions he filed were against Acorda Therapeutics, and its stock dropped on the news.

The pharmaceutical industry immediately started lobbying to change IPRIntellectual Property Rights.  Usually associated with formal legal rights such as patent, trademark, and copyright.  Intellectual property is a broader term that encompasses knowledge, information, and data considered proprietary whether or not it is formally protected. procedures to make themselves invulnerable. Senator Coons even offered an amendment to the PATENT Act to block IPRIntellectual Property Rights.  Usually associated with formal legal rights such as patent, trademark, and copyright.  Intellectual property is a broader term that encompasses knowledge, information, and data considered proprietary whether or not it is formally protected. petitions from anyone who hasn’t been sued for patent infringement. (The amendment failed.)

I, however, have been saying for some time that those petitions were likely to be denied:

@biologypartners That’s mainly because the petitions are still pending. There’s no reason to think they’ll do better than previous attempts

— Matt Levy (@MattLevyIP) August 18, 2015

(I actually was on a panel at NYU Law School with Acorda’s general counsel a couple of months ago, and I told her then that I expected those petitions to be denied.)

Well, guess what?

That’s right, Kyle Bass’s petitions against Acorda were both denied.

Once again, the pharmaceutical industry has suffered no harm from inter partes reviewAn adversarial procedure created by the AIA for challenging patents. Intended to be similar to a court proceeding, the parties argue before an Administrative Patent Judge, not a patent examiner. The challenger must show a reasonable likelihood of successfully invalidating one claim before the PTAB will agree to grant a petition for review..

Any chance they’ll decide to leave it alone now?