Key Insights
- U.S. judge dismisses OANDA lawsuit accusing StoneX of infringing its trading patents
- Court rules OANDA’s patents invalid as directed at abstract concepts like processing financial data
- Judge finds patents just use computers as tools to carry out data analytics activities
CHICAGO (MarketsXplora) – A U.S. court has dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit brought by online currency trading firm OANDA Corp against rival StoneX Group Inc, court documents showed.
Judge John Tharp of the Illinois Northern District Court said on Tuesday that three OANDA patents asserted against StoneX were invalid as they were directed toward abstract concepts like analyzing and filtering financial data.
OANDA had alleged StoneX’s trading platform infringed its patents which enable the provision of statistical metrics to users of currency trading systems based on processing financial transaction data.
But Judge Tharp found the patents relied on computer technology merely as tools to carry out abstract processes of collecting, storing, validating and crunching numbers using algorithms.
“That OANDA’s patents enable the use of more data and better modes of analysis…does not change the essentially abstract nature of the patents,” the judgment read. The patents did “not actually augment the technological capabilities of computers to do anything they couldn’t do before,” it added.
As such, StoneX’s motion to dismiss the case on grounds that the patents comprised ineligible subject matter was granted, with the court finding amendments would not resolve issues raised.
Read also! OANDA Launches Labs Trader Program for Skilled Clients
OANDA signed the patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the early 2000s. The company did not immediately respond to MarketsXplora’s request for comment on the dismissal of the lawsuit.
StoneX also did not respond. It had asked for the suit’s dismissal last June shortly after it was lodged in Chicago federal court.