Acorda hits back at Kyle Bass IPR

Acorda Therapeutics, the first company to be targeted through an inter partes review (IPR) filed by US hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to reject the petition.

In an opposition filed at the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) yesterday (May 27), Acorda told the office that filing the IPRs was a “cynical scheme” by Bass.

Bass has filed petitions against several pharmaceutical companies over the past few months to target what he believes are spurious patents.

In February he filed a request to invalidate a patent protecting Acorda’s Ampyra (dalfampridine), a treatment to help multiple sclerosis patients.

Bass has targeted the companies, which also include Jazz Pharmaceuticals, through his company Hayman Capital Management and the associated Coalition for Affordable Drugs, an organisation he created.

According to news publication The Recorder, Gerald Flattmann, partner at law firm Paul Hastings, wrote in Acorda’s opposition: “There can be no dispute that allowing hedge funds to use the IPR process to manipulate financial markets is inconsistent with congressional intent and the directives given to the office.

“Instituting inter partes review here will only encourage more such filings.”

The IPR system allows petitioners to dispute a patent’s validity before the PTAB. The reviews were introduced as part of the America Invents Act.

The PTAB is expected to decide by August whether to institute proceedings against Acorda.

Neither Hayman Capital Management nor Acorda had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.