Dow alleges IPR violation in Parsoli’s Islamic index

May 06, 2008
Shailesh Menon & Ashish Rukhaiyar
MUMBAI

GLOBAL investment indices provider Dow Jones Indexes has sent a legal notice to Parsoli Corporation, maker of the Parsoli Islamic Equity Index, alleging breach of intellectual property rights (IPR), amongst other things. The New York-based Dow Jones Indexes, has asked the Indian company to cough up $8,000 (Rs 3.2 lakh) to evade legal action.

Parsoli Corp is alleged to have “copied” text and methodologies from Dow Jones Islamic Market Index’s guidebook. The guidebook contains information on methodologies pertaining to structuring of the index.

“Our client (Dow Jones) has taken care to caution users of its website not to trample on their intellectual property rights. The user agreement makes it clear that the user of the site will use contents only for internal and non-commercial purpose,” says the legal notice (a copy of which is with ET).

The notice goes on to allege that the text under section “introduction”, “definition of index universe”, “screens for acceptable business activities”, “composition review dates and process” etc on parsoli.com have been “substantially and glaringly” copied from Dow Jones Indexes. “Your unauthorised reproduction is clearly unlawful as it infringes on our client’s copyright,” the legal notice adds.

“You are, by falsely claiming global presence, and unlawfully reproducing text from our client’s guidebook, are trying to indirectly imply that you have an affiliation with our client,” the notice said. Parsoli is also alleged to have made profits by advising clients on the back of methodologies developed by Dow Jones.

Parsoli has denied all allegations. “Parsoli clarifies that Dow Jones has in no way, set standards relating to Islamic financial institutions. The holy book Quran and Hadith have prescribed guidelines for investments for the entire Islamic community and your clients have not developed it on their own,” the lawyer’s notice on behalf of Parsoli said.