Who coined the word Sensex?

Mon, May 12 02:52 AM

Someone has taken the bull on Dalal Street by its horns-and dragged it to court. Deepak Mohoni, a Pune-based stock market analyst and columnist, has taken the Bombay Stock Exchange to court over the word 'Sensex', claiming he coined the word in the late 1980s.

After learning from news reports of the BSE's plan to register the word 'Sensex' as their trademark, Mohoni responded with his own application with the Trademark Registry in January 2008.

"I do not understand their motive behind filing for the trademark or what they intend to do with it financially or otherwise," he said. In fact, in the early 1990s, during a seminar, the BSE training manager had introduced him as the "guy who coined the word Sensex", said Mohani, who, incidentally, is a regular feature on television, explaining the Sensex and its mood swings.

After he filed his application with the Trademark Registry, the BSE sent him a notice in March this year through their solicitors Wadia Ghandy and Co. "Our clients state that the word 'Sensex' is associated exclusively with them (BSE) and that they have been continuously and extensively using the trademark 'Sensex' in respect of the services, of which you have sought registration of the trademark 'Sensex', right from 1986," says point 10 of the notice issued by Wadia Ghany and Co to Mohoni. Three weeks ago, Mohoni responded by filing a petition in a Pune district court.

BSE spokesperson Kalyan Bose, however, refused to speak about the case, saying the matter was sub judice.

The earliest evidence Mohoni has to prove his rights over the word is a Business World column titled 'Bearish trends' dated November 22, 1989. "The BSE Sensitive Index was a long and clumsy phrase to use repeatedly. With the editor's permission, I began using the abbreviated form, Sensex," he said. Further evidence that he coined the word comes in the form of articles and stories that have appeared over the years in numerous publications, which he has submitted as evidence in his petition.

"The BSE was, in fact, the last one to use the word. Our research shows that they first used it in 1995 in the Bhav Times, a BSE publication, while the BSE Times did not use the word till after 2002," Mohoni said.

"Seven or eight months after the 'Sensex' first figured in my columns, the Independent correspondent, a good friend whom I had to persuade just a little, picked up the word, after which other papers caught on," Mohoni said.

The Gwalior-educated Mohoni went to IIT Kanpur for graduation and later to IIM Calcutta. He spent a brief time in the US and Holland and returned to India in 1987 to set up a computer graphics company. In the meantime, he wrote columns as a technical analyst for the stock market, which soon became his mainstay. "I am not claiming something people were not aware of," he said, adding that it was common enough knowledge for it to feature as a question in Brand equity quizzes. Mohoni said the filed the trademark so that word would continue to remain in the public domain, if he won.

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