Patsystems has agreed to pay royalties of 10 cents per lot and a minimum monthly royalty of $50 per screen for transactions conducted over its Dome depth of market screen in a patent litigation settlement agreed with Trading Technologies last week.
Under the agreement, TT has absolved Patsystems from any potential past liability that may have arisen under the granted patents. TT has also covenanted not to sue either Patsystems or its clients for alleged infringement in relation to past or future use of Patsystems' current Reflector product, which was introduced in late 2004 to replace the Dome system.
The royalty deal with TT becomes effective on 20 August. Patsystems says it consequently plans to withdraw Dome from the market before 19 August 2005.
Commenting, Patsystems' CEO, Kevin Ashby says: "This agreement is good for Patsystems, our clients and third-party relationships. It lifts the uncertainty with respect to our liabilities, reconfirms Reflector as a non-infringing product and allows us all to concentrate on our businesses going forward."
Harris Brumfield, TT's CEO, says: "We hope this encourages other infringing entities to work with us towards settlement rather than litigation."
TT is currently contesting suits with eSpeed, Man Financial, and Refco.
In a statement released in conjunction with the settlement, Patsystems' Ashby lends credence to TT's claim that its patented price display mechanism is unique.
"We believe that TT’s static ladder order entry patents are strong," he says. "To my knowledge, the first time that Patsystems saw the static ladder order entry concept was when TT released its MD Trader product. We believe that TT invented this concept."