In a statement, CQG says federal district judge James Moran accepted its own view of the disputed patents, narrowing the scope of the protection that TT will enjoy if the patents are found valid.

"The judge emphasised that TT's patents only cover an interface that includes a price scale where the prices never automatically move, says CQG in the statement.

Since the judge's decision, CGQ says TT has admitted that its "dynamic price ladder" does not violate patents held by the Chicago firm, thus removing TT's ability to restrict traders from using the product.

Josef Schroeter, president, CQG, comments: "This is another important step to allow traders to use tools that will help them be successful without the threat of litigation."

Trading Technologies has disputed CQG's interpretation of events, branding the claims as "misleading".

"CQG released this product after TT sued CQG for patent infringement," the vendor continues. "TT does continue to assert infringement against CQG's other ladder order entry products. The Court's recent claim construction ruling had no impact on which CQG products infringe TT's patents in-suit."

CQG is just one of 17 firms that TT has sued over the patented MD Trader technology - an order-entry screen that displays multiple prices so that users can judge the depth of a market - which is part of its X_Trader order entry platform.

TT has secured a number of settlements and loyalty agreements with ISVs and broker-dealers including Nyfix, Patsystems, FFastFill, Advantage Futures, Kingstree Trading and Goldenberg Hehmeyer. In December the vendor also secured a consent judgement from UK futures broker Man Group.

But a patent litigation with eSpeed is on-going, as is the CQG case.

In 2005, TT asked the four biggest futures exchanges for a share of their revenues in return for protection from patent lawsuits. TT claimed that over 50% of electronic volume on the world's top four futures markets goes through its X_Trader system.