McGraw-Hill Sues Vanguard For Alleged Trademark Infringement On New Funds

06/08/2000
Dow Jones Business News
(Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- McGraw-Hill Cos., on behalf of its Standard & Poor's 
Corp. unit, has filed a lawsuit in
federal court charging the Vanguard Group Inc. with breach of contract and 
trademark infringement in connection
with the mutual fund company's proposed new Vipers exchange-traded funds, or 
ETFs. 

McGraw-Hill's suit alleges Vanguard breached the companies' 1988 license 
agreement by using Standard & Poor's
proprietary indices and trademarks for the Vipers exchange-traded products 
without permission.

Officials from Vanguard, the nation's second largest fund firm, weren't 
immediately available to comment on the
lawsuit. 

Exchange-traded funds are a hybrid version of index mutual funds that can be 
bought or sold during the day at
market prices instead of at the once-daily 4 p.m. price used by traditional 
mutual funds. ETFs are single shares of
stock that replicate an index such as the Standard & Poor's 500. 

Standard & Poor's currently has more than 400 license agreements for uses of 
its indices and trademarks, including
agreements related to ETFs, according to McGraw-Hill. 

McGraw-Hill wants to prevent Vanguard from using S&P's indices and trademarks 
in connection with Vipers or any
other exchange-traded security. The complaint also seeks an order requiring 
Vanguard to withdraw its Securities
and Exchange Commission application for Vipers, and seeks an order declaring 
Vanguard liable for unspecified
damages and attorneys' fees. 

McGraw-Hill's complaint states that Vipers differ significantly from shares 
of the open-end mutual funds that
Vanguard offered under the 1988 agreement. 

(This report was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires) 

Copyright (c) 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 

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