For something so simple as a trading ladder, the patent should only be given for 1-2 years and then it should expire...
Its AAPL vs. MSFT all over and CPQ vs. MSFT / IBM... It all boiled down to "look and feel".... They will simply change the display of the dome pricing and depth of market to something like Rings Waves Horizontal Price Bars Market Profile Bars, use your imagination, but paying a royalty for this concept, hmmmm.... any lawyers here?
I'm sure I don't know half as much as you do, but I do notice they're winning only against small companies who can ill afford a long drawn out legal battle. They're trying to set up a legal precendent of wins, then I assume they'll file their next suits in some Louisiana swampland. I hear the juries there favors the party who buys lunch.
Gentlemen If author understand correctly MD Trader is most advanced in futures industry .Author tested demo from www.tradingtechnologies.com and have folloving questions - 1. right black text on grey is volume ,which was executed by this price .It is most important difference to another DOME Or? 2. If Stock operator send order to Archipelago or Island , he can see he's order and control execution also if he's order is 10 shares SPY against 5 time of 300 000 of MM . example bid 300000 123.40 bid 250000 123.40 bid 10 123.40 Operator order In future industry that is not possible for retail client ? Example If operator sended order bid esu5 at 123700 and before that bid was 1000 esu5 at 123700 operator can see only in slow market ,that bid at 123700 would 1010 Front running ,delay of execution not possible in future industry with software of retail customer . bid 1010 ESU5 at 123700 are all order's of all clients by some member of CME . Author would very pleased for answer.
Gentlemen Sorry error ,was typied Front running ,delay of execution not possible in future industry with software of retail customer must read Front running ,delay of execution not possible to control in future industry with software of retail customer Excuse me.
All it takes is for someone to release an open source front end that offers a DOM ladder and interfaces with all the major API's and TT will not be able to stop anyone using it. Once it's floating around the web, they will never stop it. The word on the street is that TT is working on some kind of killer app to blow everyone else out of the water. I guess they plan to sink the boot in while their opponants are down. Runningbear
FredBloggs, I am sorry for the slow response but I had to check some facts before responding. The prior art that Refco is referring to are most likely the same things that have been presented in the TT vs eSpeed case. For over a year Cantor eSpeed has been scouring the earth for prior art and this is not a rinky dink company. This is the company that took the other side of a patent case with the wagner patent against the exchanges. Cantor has a lot of resources and has spent a lot of time in a courtroom. Anyway, there was a publicly released opinion from the judge in the matter of TTs request for a preliminary injunction against eSpeed. I'll quote part of it here....eSpeed is the defendant and it is written from the judge's perspective. What it basically came down to is nobody ever combined a ladder display with a static price axis and single action order entry. Some of the people listed had something sort of like a ladder but not static and with cumbersome order entry steps that would make scalping as it is done today on a price ladder impossible. You have to have all of these elements in one place and MD Trader was the first. As far as I know there is nothing from the Tokyo Stock Exchange that invalidates the patent and this ground has already been covered. (Probably both in the suit and in the USPTO review)
The only problem with this idea is that any large companies that trade seriously (like goldman for example) would be opening themselves up to patent infringement damages. It isn't just the vendor that is liable for creating an infringing product. People that use an infringing product also are liable for damages under the law. Like software piracy you might have some of this fly under the radar but anyone with deep pockets will be better off paying the licensing fee as opposed to risking damage awards in court. Also I can tell you, as someone that was a professional software developer in a former life, that the work and resources involved in creating a stable and production quality multi-exchange trading platform that can handle the order flow required by professional traders is not the easiest task. The open source project would require some kind of institutional backing (like linux gets). Of course a simpler solution would be for the soon to be a monopoly exchanges to license TT's ip for all of their traders. Then the whole situation would be moot. TTs only motivation in life would be to create inventions which grow volume which is good for all traders. (I'm looking in your direction mr. cme trading @ 300) And when people copy those inventions TT wouldn't care because it would still grow volume. I really believe if people keep and open mind and reconsider Harris' open letter in light of the patents strength they will see that it could be very good for the industry as a whole in the long run because it aligns everybody's interests.
Very good illustration of the problems with software patents and why they are a very bad thing http://webshop.ffii.org/
Trading Technologies Announces Settlement of Lawsuit with Strategy Runner CHICAGO, August 9, 2005 â Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT) and Strategy Runner Ltd. (Strategy Runner) announce that they have signed a settlement agreement to dispose of a pending lawsuit filed by TT in the United States District for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago alleging that Strategy Runner infringed TTâs U.S. Patent Nos. 6,766,304 and 6,772,132. The parties expect the lawsuit to be dismissed once the Court approves a Consent Judgment submitted by TT and Strategy Runner. Once the consent Judgment is entered, the parties will issue a more detailed press release.