Fish & Richardson Wins Summary Judgment for the Chicago Board Options Exchange in Patent Case

March 3, 2011 - Fish & Richardson won a summary judgment today for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in a patent infringement case involving a patent on an "Automated Exchange for Trading Derivative Securities." The CBOE brought the declaratory action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, asking the court to rule that it did not infringe a patent held by International Securities Exchange, LLC (ISE). In a 16 page Opinion and Order, the court found that ISE's patent was not infringed by the CBOE and entered judgment accordingly.

The CBOE was founded in 1973 and is the oldest and largest options exchange in the United States. An option is a contract to buy or sell a specific financial product, usually a stock or exchange-traded fund. The contract sets a specific price at which the option can be exercised and has an expiration date.

The CBOE employs its proprietary Hybrid Trading System which integrates a floor-based, open outcry model, where trading occurs through oral communication on the floor of the exchange, and electronic trading. The CBOE owns two patents related to its Hybrid system. ISE had sued the CBOE in federal court in New York alleging that CBOE's Hybrid system infringed its patent on an automated exchange. The CBOE then filed this case in Chicago and obtained an Order transferring the New York case to Chicago as well.

"The CBOE has been an innovator in combining technology with its traditional floor-based, open outcry trading platform,"said Fish & Richardson Senior Principal Jonathan Marshall, who represented CBOE in the case. "We are pleased that Judge Joan H. Lefkow found that the CBOE's innovative system does not infringe the ISE patent."