Next Lutnick ignored a potent threat from two rivals that merged to form BrokerTec.

FORBES: Briefing Book: Howard Lutnick

ESpeed by itself is the second-largest broker of Treasury bond trades (after BrokerTec).

FORBES: Briefing Book: Howard Lutnick

By September 2003 BrokerTec had 30% of the market for on-the-run (recently issued) Treasurys, eSpeed's bread-and-butter business--and Lutnick was forced to take notice.

FORBES: Briefing Book: Howard Lutnick

But instead of dropping price improvement or addressing customer problems, Lutnick slapped BrokerTec with a suit, claiming it had violated eSpeed's patents on such bond-trading conventions as the "work-up" (a practice that gave a trader, buying or selling at a given price, the right to execute all trading at that price until he's done) and "trading time" (the grace period a trader has to act under a work-up).

FORBES: Briefing Book: Howard Lutnick