PTAB won't dismiss hedge fund IPR petitions

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected a request from Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) to dismiss petitions seeking inter partes review of patents on Thalomid thalidomide and to sanction the Coalition for Affordable Drugs, an entity controlled by hedge fund manager Kyle Bass.

In a ruling released Sept. 25, PTAB rejected Celgene's argument that the Coalition's IPR petitions constituted an illegal abuse of the IPR system because Bass was attempting to profit from the stock market's reaction to the petition. ...