Indian Institute of Human Brands, Duff & Phelps in legal spat

The Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), the think-tank on ‘celebrities-as-human-brands’ said they are in the process of sending a legal notice to valuation outfit Duff & Phelps (D&P) who released their Celebrity Report today. Duff & Phelps had approached IIHB in November 2019 proposing an exclusive tie-up between the two organizations wherein D&P would use IIHB’s knowledge, research, data and expertise for their 2020 Report. IIHB agreed, subject to being given exclusivity credits in the Report.

“Duff & Phelps have completely reneged on their commitments to us on exclusivity despite multiple mails being exchanged, and specific confirmations to that effect by Vibhor Nayar, Vice President in-charge of the project,” says Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor of IIHB.

In fact, IIHB alleges, D&P executives took huge amount of data from IIHB and have not even attributed the same to IIHB, let alone credit IIHB exclusively. “A lot of the data has been shown to be the work of D&P in-house teams while all the knowledge, the expertise and the perspectives were derived from interactions with IIHB. Their teams spent hours in huddles at the IIHB offices. A lot of information has been rephrased and passed off as D&P’s own assessment and understanding of the subject.”

IIHB’s lawyers, Dua & Associates, are already in the process of sending out the legal notice.

“What amazes me is the unashamed diversion and repurposing of our data. And then they have gone and put out a press release claiming an exclusive tie-up with some Meltwater entity. It hurts. I have never seen such low professional standards in 35 years of being in business,” adds Dr. Goyal.