Chicago-based Trading Technologies' crusade to protect its intellectual property rights has moved to the international stage with a new round of software patent approvals in the UK and Europe.
The vendor, which provides screen-based technology for trading on multiple futures and options exchanges, says the UK patents office has awarded two patents relating to innovations in its MD Trader product, the market-depth-style order-entry screen incorporated in TT’s X_Trader trading software.
The European Patent Office has also issued an intention to grant a patent relating to the innovations in MD Trader. TT expects the European patent to be granted in January of 2005.
TT has already been awarded two patents in the US for its MD Trader technology and has settled patent infringement suits with two Chicago brokers. Litigation is also pending against fixed income network ESpeed.
Future suits are expected to be brought against TT's competitors in the independent software market. Potential European targets include Patsystems, Ffastfill and Orc Software.