An innovative new technique for gaming the financial markets emerged in late 2014 when a hedge fund manager began filing inter partes review petitions with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to profit from the short selling of pharmaceutical stocks. The pharmaceutical industry deemed this practice an abuse of process and attempted to regulate and deter these tactics by protesting to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to sanction those who use the strategy and for the Patent and Trademark office to issue a new policy banning the strategy. However, the Board declined to impose sanctions on hedge fund manager Kyle Bass for abuse of process. Options to halt the strategy include Congressional action, agency action, and Judicial Review of the Patent and Trademark Office’s ruling. This Recent Development will present means of regulating this activity and…
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