Bond Trading Patent

Chicago, IL: (Oct-10-07) A lawsuit was brought against eSpeed Inc., the electronic bond-trading unit of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, alleging that the company infringed on patents. The lawsuit was filed by Trading Technologies Inc., a Chicago company run by bond trader Harris Brumfield. The lawsuit was one of more than a dozen that Brumfield filed since 2004 against brokerages and trading firms, and was part of a larger strategy to get the world's financial exchanges to give him a share of profits from electronic trading. That effort fizzled when exchanges refused to negotiate with him, and most of the lawsuits against brokers have been settled for undisclosed terms.

The 3-year-long lawsuit ended with a jury ordering New York-based eSpeed to pay $3.5 million to Trading Technologies Inc. The jury found that eSpeed infringed on patents covering a popular futures trading program. The jury's finding applied only to a six-month period during 2004. A federal judge earlier this year found that eSpeed's trading software in use since 2005 doesn't infringe on the patents. Sources say that the jury didn't see all the evidence showing similar software was already in use at other companies before Trading Technologies got its patents. [CHICAGO BUSINESS: BOND TRADING PATENT]

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Published on Oct-14-07