House of Representative's Committee on Energy and Commerce have also begun investigating the tactics used by the third-party investigators employed by HP.
Nevertheless, the Patent Office determined that the swap contract was not obvious and issued the patent. Prepared and counseled witnesses before state and federal grand juries, including In re Tyco Grand Jury. Private investigators are wary of the increasing uproar over the tactics used by HP's investigators, because many professional investigators still make use of pretexting in some form and still want to be able to access phone records. The attorney general intends to charge the private investigators with violations of the state's cybercrime statutes, Dresslar said.
Thus, establishing a swap contract based on a known method of determining the price of interest rate swaps was sufficiently inventive to qualify for a patent. The Committee, which has had hearings on the used of pretexting, voiced concern over the matter.