Final Order Delivered in the UK IP High Court Case

LONDON, August 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

In a substantive judgment delivered on 17 May 2013, Mrs Justice Asplin dismissed Dr Coward's claim and ruled that IKOS owned all of the intellectual property rights vested in the disputed parts of its quantitative trading software. (See our earlier press release dated 17 May 2013).

At a further two-day High Court hearing before Mrs Justice Asplin on 30th-31st July 2013 to decide the relief that IKOS were entitled to, the judge ordered that Dr Coward had no right to retain or use IKOS' quantitative software when he covertly downloaded it for his own purposes in November 2009.

Mrs Justice Asplin refused Dr Coward's application for permission to appeal the substantive findings in her judgment as having no reasonable prospect of success. She ordered Dr. Coward to meet 85% of legal costs incurred by IKOS in these proceedings and also rejected an appeal on the terms of the costs order.

Mrs Justice Asplin's Final Order includes the following pronouncements:

"It is declared that:

1. The software and databases used by IKOS are not the subject of any copyright or database rights owned by Dr Coward and do not incorporate any part of any software or databases which are the subject of copyright or database right owned by Dr Coward.
2. IKOS may, without Dr Coward's consent, use, maintain and update (by itself or by anyone on its behalf), anywhere in the world, the software and databases used by IKOS or any earlier version thereof.
3. Dr Coward infringed IKOS's copyright and breached the duty of confidence which he owed to IKOS in respect of the … software and other confidential documents as referred to in the Judgment…"

[paragraphs 135 to 140 of the Judgment of 17 May 2013].

Dr Coward is required to return or destroy any copies of the whole or any part of IKOS' quantitative

trading software  that he still has  in  his possession, custody or control;  and was  also required to

undertake to the Court that he will "not use, consult, disclose, copy, communicate or publish any or any substantial part of [IKOS' quantitative trading software]", neither will he do these acts "…through others acting on his behalf or on his instructions or with his encouragement".

Dr Coward also gave an undertaking, to be supported by an affidavit, to remove certain parts of the software used by his new business venture that had been written by IKOS employees while they were on gardening leave from IKOS.