Situation Summary
What I require is three CFAs or similarly recognized credentials to confirm that Stoxx Ltd.’s website disclaimer found in stoxdox Inc.’s United States Patent and Trademark Office trial testimonial #78 is coherent with Stoxx Ltd.’s legal marketplace constraints.
Essentially the three CFAs would be expert witnesses by signing an affidavit which attests that Stoxx Ltd.’s own website disclaimer, which is coherent with its legal marketplace constraints as an EU Benchmark Administrator, contradicts its testimony in the United States Patent and Trademark Office intellectual property trial.
Note: Stoxx Ltd. is regulated under European Union Benchmark Regulations not US securities laws. As such, Stoxx Ltd.’s only legal marketplace offering is benchmark licensing to institutional money managers. They use the licenses to benchmark their performance, nothing more, nothing less.
Notably, Blackrock is a 75% customer of Stoxx Ltd.’s benchmark licensing business in the open-end fund industry. Stoxx Ltd. has 0.07% global market share in the open-end fund benchmark administrator industry.
stoxdox Inc. is a consumer media company designed to be the Netflix of finance; 100% of its customers are individual consumers.
stoxdox Inc. United States Patent and Trademark Office Trial Testimony #78
#78: Stoxx Ltd.’s own website Disclaimer also provides that it may not “sponsor, endorse, sell or promote products which reference DAX or STOXX indices,” or “recommend that any person invest in the products which reference DAX or STOXX indices or any other securities.” The disclaimer also provides that, “[i]n particular, with the publication of DAX and STOXX indices no statements are being made about (i) the issuers who are represented in an index, (ii) the market and/or economic reality an index is trying to represent or (iii) any other statement is being made about the various data contained in an index.” A screenshot of this disclaimer is included below and is also attached as Exhibit 313. Exhibit 313 is a true and accurate copy of the disclaimer and was accessed on May 26, 2023 at the following URL: https://www.stoxx.com/exchange-traded-products#.
Exhibit 313 of stoxdox USPTO testimony: Stoxx Ltd. website disclaimer
Paraphrased Samples of Stoxx Ltd.’s United States Patent and Trademark Office Trial Testimony
#10: Stoxx Ltd. provides a suite of front-to-back investment management solutions.
#11: Stoxx Ltd. has been using its mark in connection with its investment solutions & financial analysis.
#12: Stoxx Ltd. is well known for its innovative approach to financial services and investment strategies.
#13: Stoxx Ltd.’s True Exposure indices are based on strategic asset allocation & provide optimal balance between expected risk and return.
#30: Stoxx Ltd.’s license gives the Licensees the right to issue, distribute, have listed, trade, and advertise the Authorized Financial Instruments.
#31: The Authorized Financial Instruments can be in the form of a variety of financial products, including ETFs.
#32: Stoxx Ltd. lists the Authorized Financial Instruments which it claims to offer, promote, and sell to consumers, sample:
- iShares Global Equity Factor ETF
- iShares Emerging Markets Equity Factor ETF
- iShares U.S. Small-Cap Equity Factor ETF
- iShares International Small-Cap Equity Factor ETF
- iShares U.S. Equity Factor ETF
- iShares International Equity Factor ETF
Note: Stoxx Ltd. confirms the “Authorized Financial Instruments” which it claims to offer and promote are securities, which is illegal for an EU Benchmark Administrator.
#36: Stoxx Ltd. substantially promotes products offered under its Marks.
#37: Stoxx Ltd. promotes products under its Marks. Due to the nature of the products, Stoxx relies heavily on its website and website content for the promotion of Authorized Financial Instruments.
#38: Stoxx Ltd.’s website promotes & offers products under the Stoxx Marks.
#39: Stoxx Ltd. promotes its Authorized Financial Instruments on social media.
#40: Continuous and countless promotions of Stoxx Ltd.’s Authorized Financial Instruments.
#41: Stoxx Ltd. promoted investment solutions offered under the Stoxx Mark.
#42: Massive billboards were strategically placed to expose millions of consumers to investment solutions offered under Stoxx Ltd.’s marks.
#43: Billboards promoting Stoxx Ltd.’s investment solutions.
#44: Stoxx Ltd. promoted its investment solutions online.
#45: Stoxx Ltd. promotes products under its Marks.
#46: In addition to Stoxx Ltd. promoting products under its Marks, Licensees promote Stoxx Ltd.’s Authorized Financial Instruments, thus even more consumers are exposed to Stoxx.
Paraphrased Samples of Stoxx Ltd.’s United States Patent and Trademark Office Trial Rebuttal Testimony
Note: Stoxx Ltd.’s Testimony Rebuttal amounts to the illegal promotion of securities to the consumer market.
#5: Stoxx Ltd. Licensees can issue, list, and offer the Authorized Financial Instruments for trading on stock exchanges.
#6: Stoxx Ltd.’s Licensees offer the Authorized Financial Products.
#7: Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Financial Products have had significant trading volumes.
#8: Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Financial Products have been traded on U.S. exchanges.
#9: stoxdox contends that Stoxx Ltd.’s consumers are limited to its Licensees, and that individual investors cannot be consumers of Stoxx Ltd.’s products and services. Not accurate, Stoxx Ltd.’s consumers include individual investors.
#10: Individual investors can invest in Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Financial Products through online brokerage accounts.
#11: Once an investor opens an individual investment account, they can select the Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Financial Product they would like to invest in.
#12: Individual investors are consumers of Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Products.
#13: Financial professionals may recommend Stoxx Ltd.-branded Authorized Financial Products to their clients and purchase them on their client’s behalf. These individual investors are consumers of Stoxx Ltd.-branded products.
#14: stoxdox contends it is a “global media platform” that offers “a broad selection of finance/investment categories,” whereas Stoxx Ltd. is “limited in the type and scope of information that it may lawfully produce and publish as well as to whom it may distribute its data and publications” and that it cannot “engage the marketplace as a financial media brand and company.”
#15: Stoxx Ltd. is not, as stoxdox suggests, prohibited from providing consumers financial publications, news, information, analysis, statistics, calculations, stock prices, and other market-related information and data. Stoxx Ltd. offers consumers a variety of publications and financial information.