I agree, patents would be nice but they take a while for approval. Trade secrets on the way that the software is written would be unique to tptw. Even if they dont have a patent they could protect the methods they used in the software scripts. Enforcement of patents and trade secrets are not cheap but I think TPTW has the bases covered.
It would be cheaper for IBM just to pay a license fee, maybe thats ultimately the plan for IBM they do it on computer software all the time.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
