Sensex, the very word synonymous with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is now giving Asia’s oldest stock exchange some anxious moments.
Analyst Mohoni files case against bourse saying he’s the exclusive owner
MUMBAI: Sensex, the very word synonymous with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is now giving Asia’s oldest stock exchange some anxious moments.
Veteran stock market analyst Deepak Madhukar Mohoni has staked his claim to the term, saying that he coined it as far back as November 1989 when he started contributing articles to the magazine, BusinessWorld.
In a suit filed in the Pune District Court three weeks ago, Mohoni’s lawyer R Nehru has petitioned the court to recognise Mohoni as the lawful and exclusive owner of the trademark ‘Sensex’, and to order BSE to withdraw its own trademark application for the term ‘Sensex’.
The document submitted to the court says that in the course of his writing, starting 1989, Mohoni realised that the term ‘Bombay Sensitive Index’ was rather clumsy and long, and in that context, summed it up succinctly into ‘Sensex’, which he subsequently used in many of his articles, reports and periodicals.
The suit alleges that the BSE, “for many years even after 1995, was not using the word ‘Sensex’ in its official publication called ‘BSE Times’, which goes to prove that it never had any intent to claim any right, title or claim in the said mark”.
Mohoni, whom DNA Money spoke to, said that he had no objection to ‘Sensex’ (which has now crept into the public consciousness) being used, as long as no other person claimed any ownership rights to it.
But in December 2006, he learnt through news articles that the BSE had applied to the Trade Mark Registry in India for registration of the word “Sensex” under the provisions of Trade Marks Act, 1999 (Act) in its favour.
On February 15, 2007, Mohoni sent a notice to the Registrar of Trade Mark, Mumbai, calling on him to refuse the registration of the trademark.
Following up on this, on November 11, 2007, he filed two trademark applications for registration of the “Sensex” as a trademark in his name. The applications are pending before the Trade Mark Office.
On its part, BSE’s lawyer Wadia Gandhy & Co, sent a notice to Mohoni on March 26, 2008, saying that trademark was adopted by BSE as far back as 1986 to denote the BSE Sensitive Index, and that he withdraw his trademark application immediately.
That’s when Mohoni decided to seek judicial intervention.
In the suit filed three weeks ago, Mohoni’s lawyer says that his client asserts no claim to the name Bombay Sensitive Index.
“The said notice of the defendant (BSE) is misconceived in that it has falsely attributed its rights, whatsoever, in the term ‘Bombay Sensitive Index’ with the ownership of the mark (Sensex). In other words, the defendant has mixed up the term “Bombay Stock Exchange” with the mark (Sensex).
Over to Nehru and Gandhy to battle it out.
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