June 18, 2007
Intellectual property (IP) has emerged as one of the biggest issues in the indexing space. Cases like Dow Jones & Co. v. International Securities Exchange, Inc. have challenged the idea that index providers can charge licensing fees on products related to their indexes. Already, a federal appeals court has ruled that providers do not have those rights for options tied to index-based ETFs; many think there could be additional challenges to index-related IP rights in the future.
The Journal of Indexes convened a focused panel on the topic at the Information Management Network World Series of ETFs conference in Miami, Florida, on March 26, 2007. The following is a synopsis of that panel discussion.
At the conclusion of the panel transcript, Hartmut Graf provides a separate analysis of the state of index IP rights in Europe, where index developers face perhaps an even more immediate challenge.