The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has ruled two patent challenges made by hedge fund manager and self-styled “short activist” Kyle Bass against Anacor Pharmaceuticals can proceed.  The ruling, made by the PTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board, means the board believes the petitions filed by Bass’s Coalition for Affordable Drugs presented sufficient evidence to warrant an inter partes review of the two patents, which are for Anacor’s toenail fungus drug Kerydin.  Bass argued in the petitions that the patents should be considered invalid because they were obvious when granted and thus not deserving of protection under intellectual property laws....