Nasdaq Inc. is trying to claim that it invented the concept of options trading, rival Miami International Holdings Inc. said in a series of petitions seeking to have seven of Nasdaq’s patents canceled.
Miami International, the parent company for fully electronic options trading exchanges known as MIAX, says in filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the ideas that Nasdaq patented between 2003 and 2013 aren’t eligible for such protection. It’s asking the agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate the patents.
The patent board will consider the petitions and any response filed by Nasdaq. If it decides that MIAX has a “reasonable likelihood” of winning its argument, the board will institute a review and issue a final decision a year after that.
The challenge comes as Nasdaq is suing rival exchanges for infringing its patents. Last month, Nasdaq sued IEX Group Inc., accusing IEX of hiring a group of Nasdaq employees with intimate knowledge of how its stock exchange technology works, and subsequently violating seven patents.
Miami International is trying to use the patent office to dispense with an infringement lawsuit that Nasdaq filed against it in September in federal court in Trenton as it can be faster, easier and cheaper to invalidate a patent through the review board than in court.
