Opinion ID: 1039452
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The TT Patent Family

Text: TT owns a number of related patents generally di- rected to software used for electronic trading on a commodities exchange, including the ’411, ’768, ’374, and ’055 patents at issue in this appeal. Issued between March 2010 and March 2011, those four patents claim priority  Honorable Dee V. Benson, District Judge, United States District Court for the District of Utah, sitting by designation. TRADING TECHNOLOGIES INTL v. OPEN E CRY, LLC 5 from U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/186,322, filed on March 2, 2000, and U.S. Patent Application 09/590,692, which was filed on June 9, 2000, and later issued as U.S. Patent 6,772,132 (the “’132 patent”) on August 3, 2004. The ’411, ’768, and ’374 patents all arose from a series of continuation applications stemming from the parent ’132 patent. See, e.g., ’411 patent, at [63]. Accordingly, the ’411, ’768, and ’374 patents share a common written description matching that of the progenitor ’132 patent in all material respects. In contrast, the ’055 patent traces its priority from the ’132 patent as a continuation-in-part, see ’055 patent, at [63], and as such, the ’055 patent contains substantial new matter relative to the original written description of the ’132 patent. In general, the subject TT patents concern a graphical user interface that can display essential data from a commodities market and allow a user to enter electronic trade orders on an exchange. Drawings common to the ’411, ’768, ’374, and ’055 patents exemplify several key aspects of the disclosed displays: 6 TRADING TECHNOLOGIES INTL v. OPEN E CRY, LLC E.g., ’411 patent, figs. 3, 4. Figure 3 depicts a trading display that conveys up-to-date market information, including the pending bids and offers at various price points. Column 1005, labeled “Prc,” represents various contract prices for the commodity of interest. Id. col. 7 ll. 55–58. Adjacent to the price column are bid and ask columns 1003 and 1004, labeled “BidQ” and “AskQ,” respectively. Those columns show the current bid quantities (offers to buy) and ask quantities (offers to sell) at each price, id. col. 7 ll. 54–55, and a trader can enter new trade orders by clicking on the bid and ask columns, id. col. 10 ll. 19–23. The “inside market,” labeled 1020, spans the highest current bid price and the lowest current ask price. Id. col. 4 ll. 60–62. In general, the inside market approximates the commodity’s market price and therefore marks a focus of trading activity. In figure 3, the inside market includes a highest bid price of 89 and a lowest ask price of 90. Figure 4 shows the same display, with data for the same market, viewed at a later point in time. ’411 patent col. 3 ll. 47–48. Over time, the inside market can “ascend and descend as prices in the market increase and decrease.” Id. col. 9 ll. 4–5. As illustration, the inside market in figure 4, labeled 1101, has shifted up the price column to 92/93 from its earlier range of 89/90 in response to intervening trades. According to the patents, traders able to view and quickly appreciate such detailed market data can more readily identify (and capitalize upon) developing trends in an active market. Id. col. 6 ll. 12–30. To that end, the disclosed graphical user interfaces offer a logical and intuitive means to convey dynamic market information using bid, ask, and inside market indicators that visually track ongoing price fluctuations along the price column. Moreover, the patents combine a market grid, a summary of market orders, and an order entry system into a single display. In short, “[s]uch a condensed display materially TRADING TECHNOLOGIES INTL v. OPEN E CRY, LLC 7 simplifies the trading system by entering and tracking trades in an extremely efficient manner.” Id. col. 7 ll. 40– 42. Nonetheless, allowing the inside market to move up and down the display presents a problem: “As the market ascends or descends the price column, the inside market might go above or below the price column displayed on a trader’s screen.” Id. col. 9 ll. 15–17. Because the inside market informs most trading decisions, the display must provide a way to re-center the price column and bring the inside market back into view. The parent ’132 written description shared by the ’411, ’768, and ’374 patents explains that the values in the price column “are static; that is, they do not normally change positions unless a recentering command is received,” id. col. 7 ll. 64–66, and further describes a “one click” centering feature that allows a user to re-center the price column around the inside market with a single mouse click, id. col. 9 ll. 17– 25.