Research Affiliates and WisdomTree Investments said early Thursday that they had reached a settlement regarding patent infringements and that Research Affiliates will pay WisdomTree $700,000 and withdraw its lawsuit.
"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," said Robert Arnott (left), chairman and CEO of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Research Affiliates, in a press release.
Research Affiliates produces asset-allocation and other strategies used to manage some $110 billion in assets worldwide. WisdomTree is an exchange-traded fund sponsor and asset manager with 49 products with some $16.8 billion in assets under management.
The two parties say that this settlement agreement resolves all matters pertaining to the lawsuit, which was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and that they will henceforth "respect each other's intellectual property and patents."
"We are pleased the matter is resolved and our businesses will continue as usual," said Jonathan Steinberg, CEO and president of New York-based WisdomTree, and Arnott in a joint statement.
Research Affiliates also says that it has agreed not to sue WisdomTree for any future claims arising under any current patents held by Research Affiliates, as well as any future patents relating to fundamentally weighted indexes and strategies that may issue under existing or future patent applications that may be filed by Research Affiliates within the next eight years, subject to a reduction by up to three years if Research Affiliates is acquired.
