GAIN Capital is pushing for the deposition of former CEO of ActForex Ilya Sorokin in the patent infringement lawsuit brought by OANDA.

The relevant documents were submitted by GAIN on June 24, 2025, at the New Jersey District Court.

GAIN seeks Court’s permission to serve a subpoena for the deposition of non-party witness Mr. Ilya Sorokin, who GAIN believes has information relevant to a prior art system, ActForex. ActForex white labeled its online FX trading system to Tamb International and Forex Capital Markets (FXCM), both of which are identified in GAIN’s invalidity contentions.

GAIN explains that Tamb International and FXCM, two of the online FX trading entities cited in GAIN’s Invalidity Contentions, published only sparse information on the operation of their online FX trading platforms offered in early 2000. GAIN has also had difficulty in discovery identifying anyone from more than 20 years ago who (a) used these systems at these companies, and (b) has the ability, in a sufficiently technically detailed manner, to be able to provide information on the backend components of these systems or how those components interact with one another.

GAIN further states that “it has only recently been discovered that although Tamb International and FXCM placed their own brands on their offered FX trading platforms, their platforms were not proprietary; rather, they were licensed from ActForex”.

Information about the product’s technical operation typically lies in the hands of the company that developed and commercialized the product. Thus, GAIN seeks information regarding the ActForex online FX trading platform functionality from a person involved with the products and knowledge of the business.

OANDA filed suit against GAIN on May 11, 2020, almost 20 years after the earliest claimed priority date of the asserted patents (March 8, 2001) and over 13 years after the first of the two patents issued (December 5, 2006). GAIN asserts that the asserted patents are invalid over the prior art.

Plaintiff OANDA Corporation sued GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. and GAIN Capital Group, LLC for alleged infringement of two United States Patents directed to trading currencies over a computer network.

GAIN researched press releases and online resources to find potential online FX trading websites prior to March 2001. GAIN says it was unaware of the newly discovered white-label arrangement between ActForex and at least two of the online FX trading platforms listed in GAIN’s Invalidity Contentions.

ActForex trading software – offered publicly under various brands by online FX dealers as ActForex licensees – is a prior art system that GAIN contends was publicly known and in public use over 24 years ago — before the asserted patents’ earliest claimed priority date.

The patents recite elements that include “backend systems,” such as servers, that are not ordinarily described in publicly available documentation for prior art products. The asserted claims are directed to foreign currency exchange trading systems and recite claim limitations that involve connections and data processes on servers. The licensees of such systems are typically agnostic to these backend operations.

Consequently, the publicly available documents about such systems only focus on the client-facing aspects (e.g., user interfaces) for such systems.

GAIN recently discovered that Mr. Ilya Sorokin, the former CEO of ActForex from 2000 to 2015, is still living and resides in Florida. Because of that role, Mr. Sorokin likely has relevant information because of that role regarding the operation of the ActForex software platform. The information that ActForex was providing white label software was not found on its licensee’s websites and was only very recently discovered by GAIN and is relevant to GAIN’s invalidity position.

In sum, GAIN claims it has good cause for the proposed subpoena to Mr. Sorokin because he likely has relevant knowledge about the prior art ActForex product supplied to Tamb International and FXCM, which is relevant to GAIN’s invalidity defenses against the asserted patents, and GAIN acted diligently in discovering Mr. Sorokin’s relevance to the prior art and notifying the Court about this issue.

GAIN asked OANDA whether it would oppose GAIN’s request via email on June 20, 2025 given the fast approaching close of discovery and OANDA’s repeated opposition of all prior similar requests. During the meet and confer on June 23, 2025, OANDA opposed GAIN’s request for leave to serve a subpoena to Mr. Sorokin and confirmed the parties were at an impasse.