Yesterday Healthier Choices Management Corporation (OTCMKTS:HCMC) suffered a setback in its patent infringement proceedings against tobacco giant Phillip Morris Products SA and the stock fell by as much as 13%.
Phillip Morris submitted a petition to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board belonging to the United States Patent and Trademark Officer for the purpose of setting up a inter partes review so as to invalidate Healthier Choices’ patent. If the petition submitted by Phillip Morris is actually accepted then Healthier Choices would need to send in a response within a period of three months.
The whole thing started when Healthier Choices filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the tobacco company in relation to its product known as IQOS. The Chief Executive Officer of the company Jeff Holman responded to the latest developments. He stated that the company is under the process of reviewing the petition filed by Phillip Morris and will oppose IPR proceedings ‘vigorously’.
Market Reaction:
On Wednesday, HCMC stock fell by 13.33% to $0.0013 with more than 707.35 million shares, compared to its average volume of 220.88 million shares. The stock has moved within a range of $0.0012 – 0.0015 after opening the trade at $0.0014.
Moving Averages
| +/- EMA(20) | 0.0015 (-13.33%) |
| +/- SMA(50) | 0.0016 (-18.75%) |
| +/- SMA(200) | 0.0009 (+44.44%) |
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