The jury is expected to return its verdict on the latest dispute between the feding brokers within days. An infringement suit brought by Cantor Fitzgerald against BrokerTec - another Icap subsidiary and prime competitor to Cantor treasury trading network eSpeed - was over-ruled in a pre-trial motion.

Cantor has instead asked the jury to find that Icap transferred some liability to BrokerTec when it connected the unit's back end system to that of alleged infringer Garban.

During the trial, Icap's defence lawyers alleged that Cantor misled the US Patent Office by redrawing its original patent application for a basic bond trading system to incorporate "cool new rules" that were already commonplace in the market.

Cantor rejects the charge, saying the original patent was for a prototype system. The subsequent amendements were mere "corrections and clarifications".

Separately, eSpeed yesterday found itself on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit brought by Mircuz Partners on behalf of all investors who bought shares in the company between 12 August 2003, and 1 July, 2004. The suit alleges that eSpeed executives made "material false positive statements during the class period". ESpeed has dismissed the suit as "without merit".