Research Affiliates has withdrawn its patent infringement lawsuit brought against exchange-traded fund sponsor and asset manager WisdomTree in the US District Court for the Central District of California.
As part of the settlement, all claims and counterclaims will be dismissed with prejudice between Research Affiliates, WisdomTree Investments, its subsidiaries, WisdomTree Asset Management and WisdomTree Retirements Services, the WisdomTree Trust, as well as Mellon Capital Management and ALPS Distributors.
The settlement agreement resolves all matters pertaining to the lawsuit.
Robert Arnott, chairman and chief executive of Research Affiliates, says: “Based on information that came to our attention during the lawsuit, Research Affiliates can now acknowledge that WisdomTree’s fundamentally-weighted indexes and strategies were developed by WisdomTree independently of Research Affiliates.”
Jonathan Steinberg, chief executive and president of WisdomTree, and Arnott jointly said: “We are pleased the matter is resolved and our businesses will continue as usual.”
Steinberg and Arnott believe that each company’s product suites represent important advances in the world of indexing. Both parties agree to respect each other’s intellectual property and patents.
Under the settlement, all parties will exchange releases for all existing claims.
