Euronext Liffe, the
pan-European derivatives exchange, has won a patent fight with a
former employee over who owns its electronic trading
platform.
In the case, a High Court judge had previously ruled that the
inventions Pavel Pinkava devised while working for Liffe between
2001 and 2005 had not been formulated in the course of his normal
duties.
But the judge also ruled that the inventions were thought up
after Pinkava had been specifically requested to develop an
exchange-tradable credit derivative.
"It was in solving this problem that Dr Pinkava made his
inventions. They were thus made in the course of his specially
assigned duties," said the judge.
Pinkava went to the Court of Appeal, but the judges there
unanimously rejected his contention that he owned the technology,
and that the technology in question was not protected by UK and
European patent law anyway.
Pinkava is said to have thought the system he devised belonged
to Liffe, but after being advised that it belonged to him applied
for four patents in the US.
The inventions covered the electronic trading of various
financial instruments, including credit default swaps, credit
interest swaps, interest rate swaps and overnight index swaps.
Robin Fry, technology lawyer from law firm Beachcroft, said,
“Even though Europe has refused pure 'business method' patents,
they are still of worldwide value provided a patent is filed. Major
corporates here - both in the financial arena and in the software
industry - should always consider a US filing if only to keep the
competition at bay.”
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