The Philadelphia Stock Exchange announced that it is seeking to block the International Securities Exchange from launching a new gold index, alleging copyright infringement.

The PHLX says it filed a motion in the U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the anticipated launch of the recently announced ISE Gold Index. It claims in its filing that the new index is a copycat index that mimics almost exactly the PHLX Gold/Silver Index.

The PHLX Gold/Silver Index, a market capitalization-weighted index, is comprised of 13 stocks representing companies involved in the gold and silver mining industry. It was established by the exchange in 1979, used by the investing community to manage risk and to speculate about the direction of the gold and silver mining industry. The ISE index was to launch tomorrow, along with several other sector indexes.

The PHLX has registered its selection of stocks in the index as a work with the U. S. Copyright Office. In comparing the composition and weighting of the proposed ISE index, the exchange found that it mirrored in all-important respects the companies in XAU and XAU’s weighting scheme.

“We place a premium on the value of our proprietary intellectual property,” says chairman and CEO of the PHLX Meyer “Sandy” Frucher. “Our indexes are market bellwethers for the sectors they cover, and we intend to defend vigorously our rights to prevent the use of our intellectual property without a proper license.” Frucher continues, “In the U.S., if intellectual property is not respected, then there is simply no reward for innovation.”