Cantor Fitzgerald vs. DraftKings and FanDuel

MARK TERRY, ESQ.

The patent dispute involving Cantor Fitzgerald, DraftKings, and FanDuel highlights what can happen when technology rights survive the businesses and corporate structures that originally created them.

The patents at issue were associated with earlier electronic trading and wagering systems. As related entities were restructured, dissolved, or separated, questions arose about the ownership and enforceability of those rights.

Patents are personal property. They can be assigned, licensed, sold, inherited, transferred to successor entities, or retained by creditors and holding companies. The dissolution of an operating company does not automatically eliminate its patent assets.

Unclear chains of title can produce costly disputes over who has standing to enforce a patent. Missing assignments or unrecorded transfers may also create competing ownership claims and complicate litigation.

For online platforms and other fast-growing technology companies, freedom-to-operate work should include older patents—not only the portfolios of current competitors. Legacy rights may remain active and later be asserted against products that did not exist when the patents were filed.

Patent owners should maintain complete assignment records and plan for intellectual property during mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, and dissolution. Recording transfers with the USPTO can help preserve a clear ownership history.

Licensing strategies, defensive portfolios, and regular competitive monitoring can further reduce the risk of surprise enforcement actions. Proper management over the full life of a patent is as important as obtaining the patent itself.