BIO Statement on USPTO IPR Decisions

Washington, D.C. (August 25, 2015) – The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today released the following statement on the decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejecting challenges to two patents held by Acorda Therapeutics.

This statement can be attributed to BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood:

“We applaud the decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reject hedge fund manager Kyle Bass’ challenge of two of Acorda’s patents.  Nonetheless, it remains critical that Congress and the PTO continue their efforts to reform the Inter Partes Review (IPR) process in order to ensure that it operates in a balanced manner and is not able to be abused by those attempting to game the system for their own financial gain. As has been noted in the media, Mr. Bass has filed 10 more petitions this month. This is clearly not the purpose for which the IPR system was created.  The PTO should send a clear signal that it won’t tolerate the abuse of its processes for such improper purposes, and Congress should act swiftly to reform the system so that it doesn’t continue to create incentives for misuse by financial speculators and extortionists.”

For more information on BIO and the biotechnology industry, please visit www.bio.org.

Upcoming BIO Events 

BIO Latin America Conference
October 14-16, 2015
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

PMC/BIO Solutions Summit
October 14, 2015
Washington, D.C.

BIO Investor Forum
October 20-21, 2015
San Francisco, Calif.

BIO-Europe
November 2-4, 2015
Munich, Germany

The 18th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference
February 8-9, 2016
New York, New York

13th Annual BIO Asia International Conference
March 15-16, 2016
Tokyo, Japan

BIO International Convention
June 6-9, 2016
San Francisco, Calif.

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