How do financial firms such as Dow Jones&Company or Standard&Poor’s guarantee that an another firm does not duplicate the indices they publish under a different name? What legal step is necessary for a firm to be able to licence its newly constructed index?
no copyright issues. the reason no one does it is what’s the pt? both the dow & s&p are so imbedded w/ the investment community that whoever came out w/ competing indices would have a tough time marketing it. & it’s not like anyone can make it "better". the formulas are simplistic, easy to understand & accepted. there are however others that have come out w/ niche indices like russell in the small cap space or msci for international.