The Boston Options Exchange (BOX) has filed a lawsuit against three bigger rivals, accusing them of infringing its price improvement processor patent.
BOX received the patent, which specifically relates to price improvement auctions for electronic trading of financial instruments, yesterday.
The all-electronic market then immediately filed a patent infringement suit against the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the International Securities Exchange and Nasdaq OMX PHLX in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Since its launch in 2004, BOX claims to have saved investors over $335 million through price improvement via its 'PIP'.
The firm is calling for a trial by jury and treble damages from all three, for "willful" infringement.
Tony McCormick, CEO, BOX, says: "BOX is committed to price improvement and is willing to engage in discussions in order to ensure that price improvement is available to all segments of the marketplace."