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26 October 2015Patents

WIPR survey: Readers worried by IPR activity at PTAB

WIPR readers have said they are concerned that some parties are abusing the inter partes review (IPR) process.

Responding to WIPR’s most recent survey, 55% of respondents said they were concerned that the actions of some parties constituted an abuse of the process.

Earlier this month, WIPR reported that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had decided to institute IPRs of two patents owned by internet security company VirnetX.

The PTAB’s decisions came despite VirnetX’s protestations that the challenger, a hedge fund called The Mangrove Partners Master Fund, had filed the petitions in order to “manipulate the financial markets”.

Both patents cover a system and method for sending secure messages over the internet. Mangrove filed the petitions in April, alleging that the patents are obvious.

Mangrove is not the first entity to be criticised for filing IPRs.

In the pharmaceutical sector, hedge fund manager Kyle Bass has come under fire for challenging several patents through IPRs.

Bass, who runs the hedge fund Hayman Capital Management, filed the challenges under the name of an organisation called the Coalition for Affordable Drugs.

Michelle Lee, director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, told the AIPLA 2015 Annual Meeting last week that the office has received more than three times the number of PTAB petitions (4,000 to date) than it expected.

She argued that the USPTO has done a “pretty darn good job” in implementing the PTAB system, even if improvements are needed.

However, despite the 55% survey figure, there were some who were not concerned by the nature of some IPR filings.

One respondent said: “The IPR process is working precisely as it was intended: to potentially get rid of patents that never should have been issued.”

This week we ask: “Last week we reported that a US restaurant owner cannot copyright a series of recipes she had created because it was not original enough to deserve protection. Do you think recipes should be allowed to be protected?”

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Patents
9 October 2015   The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has decided to institute inter partes reviews of two patents owned by internet security company VirnetX, despite its protestations that the challenger filed the petitions in order to “manipulate the financial markets”.