|Mount Lucas Sues Rival Over Quant Model|Mount Lucas Management, well known for its quantitative approach to futures
trading, has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against rival quant manager
Alpha Financial Technologies. In a complaint filed last month in New York,
the Newtown, Pa., firm accuses Alpha Financial of using a Mount Lucas program
to manage a proprietary index called ATF Diversified Trends Indicator. Both
Mount Lucas and Alpha Financial, a Grapevine, Texas, firm headed by famed
futures trader Victor Sperandeo, manage hedge funds based on proprietary
indexes that track commodity and financial futures. Im comfortable were in
the right, said Sperandeo, better known as Trader Vic. His firm has yet to
file a formal response. What prompted the lawsuit A routine review of
competitors funds by Mount Lucas law firm, Leason Ellis of White Plains, N.Y.
Lawyer David Leason insists Mount Lucas isnt out to damage Alpha
Financials business. Mount Lucas interest is that it receives a fair
royalty, he said. Although Mount Lucas has been in business for 25 years,
its patent was filed three years later than a similar patent held by Alpha
Financial, founded in 2000. But patent law can be counter-intuitive, said
Bernard Rhee, a patent attorney at Technology and Business Law Advisors of
Baltimore. If someone builds a better mousetrap, he said, the newer patent can
nullify the effect of an earlier one. But when the patents involve an idea
such as an investment process, disputes are notoriously hard to resolve. Th…

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Mount Lucas Sues Rival Over Quant Model