On September 26, 2012, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear International Securities Exchange's (ISE) appeal of the Appellate Court's May 25, 2012 decision that affirmed a permanent injunction prohibiting ISE from listing or providing an exchange market for trading in options on either the S&P 500 Index (S&P 500) or the Dow Jones Industrial AverageSM (DJIA).
This injunction also forbids The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) from clearing options on these indexes for ISE.
"In refusing to hear ISE's appeal, the Illinois Supreme Court has validated CBOE's position that neither ISE nor any other third party should be able to hijack proprietary index options that CBOE created and grew over the last 30 years," said CBOE Chairman and CEO William J. Brodsky. "Today's action further illustrates Illinois' ongoing and fundamental support for business growth and innovation."
By way of background, on November 15, 2006, CBOE, the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and Dow Jones & Company, Inc. filed a lawsuit in Cook County, Illinois, against ISE and OCC to prevent ISE from listing or offering a market for trading in options based on the S&P 500 or DJIA and to prevent OCC from facilitating such trading. On July 8, 2010, the Circuit Court of Cook County entered the permanent injunction against ISE and OCC; this decision was affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court on May 25, 2012.