Citadel Securities Fails to Dodge High-Speed Trading Patent Suit

Citadel Securities LLC failed to convince an Illinois federal judge HFT Solutions LLC’s patents are ineligible for protection in a dispute targeting Citadel’s high-frequency trading.

The financial firm didn’t provide convincing evidence that HFT’s patents are based on abstract ideas, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She denied Citadel’s motion to dismiss, stating claims incorporating well-known components can still be an inventive concept eligible for patenting.

“At most, there is a factual dispute as to whether the asserted patents involve ‘well-understood, routine, conventional activit[ies],’” Coleman said. “That precludes granting ...