Interactive Brokers, TradeStation find case brought by Chart Trading Development not amenable to mediation
The parties in the case have already held settlement talks but they do not believe that the case is amenable to mediation.
Interactive Brokers LLC, TradeStation Group, Inc., TradeStation Securities, Inc., and TradeStation Technologies, Inc, which are appellees in a case brought by Chart Trading Development (CTD), do not see the case as amenable to mediation. This becomes clear from Docketing Statements the companies have filed with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
The appellees confirm that they have already held settlement talks with Chart Trading Development. Interactive Brokers states that it does not believe that mediation would be fruitful at this time. TradeStation shares this stance, as it says that the case is not amenable to mediation because the parties strongly disagree about the merits of the case and are unlikely to reach agreement.
CTD is challenging the decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) from August 18, 2017 about two of its patents – the ’190 Patent and the ’611 Patent.
In August, PTAB sided with a number of brokers and technology companies, including Interactive Brokers LLC, CQG, NinjaTrader and TradeStation, in that a number of the claims about these patents were actually patent ineligible. CTD is now appealing the decisions.
Below is a summary of what the patents in question cover.
- ’611 Patent
The patent discloses “methods and apparatus for providing an interactive graphical representation of a market.” The ’611 Patent states that financial information used to create a graph may be information typically sorted in a tabular format, such as a spreadsheet. According to the ’611 Patent, graphs are easier to read and understand than tables and interactive graphs facilitate trading. The system in the ’611 Patent can be implemented using a computer network in which a suitable workstation implements a graphical trading interface application and communicates with a server linked to a back office clearing center that causes transactions to be cleared and verified.
- ’190 Patent
The Patent discloses “systems and methods for providing an interactive graphical representation of a market for an electronic trading”. This is a method for providing an interactive graphical representation of a market, the method comprising (inter alia): displaying a graph having a first axis and a second axis on a display of a workstation, wherein the graph includes a curve corresponding to a range of values of a financial instrument; allowing a user to select a portion of the graph; and in response to the user selection of the portion of the graph, displaying an interactive trading dialog box on the display of the workstation, the interactive trading dialog box being configured to receive an instruction from the user.
The Appellees will seek that the Court supports the PTAB decisions.
