Patents

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Two separate lawsuits over alleged infringement of patents related to the financial services industry to settle; a third decided by jury

In signs that companies are increasingly willing to license business method patents, two prominent companies are settling patent infringement lawsuits brought against them.

The Financial Times has reported that Reuters is expected to settle the patent infringement lawsuit it brought against Bloomberg for alleged infringement of its patents relating to the automated matching of buy and sell orders in an electronic market.

Separately, DataTreasury has settled the lawsuit it brought against NCR Corporation for alleged infringement of its patents relating to technology for image capturing, centralized processing and electronic storage of document and check information.

DataTreasury has previously asserted its patents against companies such as RDM Corp, ACS, Bank of America and Citigroup.

In a third action, a jury has found against Lending Tree LLC and has awarded IMX Inc. approximately $5.8 million in damages for the willful infringement of its patent relating to an interactive mortgage and loan information real-time trading system.

This award might be trebled as a result of the finding of willful infringement.

These settlements and verdict further demonstrate the increasing importance of business method patents to the financial community.