The latest rule package for America Invents Act reviews would arm the Patent Trial and Appeal Board with the ability to sanction attorneys for not doing an adequate prefiling investigation and for making representations to the board for an "improper purpose," a new tool that attorneys say won't likely thwart patent challenges by hedge funds that some view as an abuse of the system.
Intellectual property partner Dion Bregman is quoted regarding the provision requiring attorneys not to make representations for "any improper purpose, such as to harass," noting it might be a tool that the PTAB uses to deny petitions filed by hedge funds, but a solution may ultimately have to come from Congress.