Shares of electronic bond trader eSpeed Inc. tumbled nearly 13% after a court ruled that technology used by its biggest rival did not infringe on an eSpeed patent. Manhattan-based eSpeed saw its stock shed as much as 12.8%, during afternoon trading. The ruling came in a pretrial motion Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Kent Jordan, before the beginning of a patent infringement trial. In June 2003, eSpeed, which is partly owned by Cantor Fitzgerald, sued Jersey City-based BrokerTec, claiming the electronic trading arm of ICAP Plc copied its patented trading system. BrokerTec denied the claim, saying the two methods differed--BrokerTec's gives a buyer and seller three seconds of trading exclusivity before allowing others to participate, while eSpeed's does not put a time limit on exclusivity. ESpeed says it will appeal the ruling and may also try to prove infringement by another Icap unit, Garban, according to Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal's online edition.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 12:04:29 am into the following categories: In The News

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