Astute Wealth sends cease and desist to Lumiant

Creators of client engagement platform AstuteWheel, Astute Wealth, have sent a cease and desist to advice platform Lumiant as it alleges it has breached copyright over a financial health questionnaire.

Astute Wealth alleged the Lumiant Confidence Questionnaire replicated the functionality and used the same words as almost all of the text in AstuteWheel’s 5-minute Health Check, which had been offered by Astute Wealth since 2011.

Astute Wealth intended to commence proceedings against Lumiant, unless certain terms were met by 20 July, 2021:

• Lumiant informed all clients who had used the questionnaire that the questionnaire infringed Astute Wealth’s copyright;
• Lumiant ceased to make the questionnaire available;
• Lumiant gave an undertaking that it would immediately cease and forever desist from:  
  • Marketing, promoting and/or advertising the questionnaire
  • Reproducing, communicating to the public, and supplying the questionnaire; and 
• Lumiant forever desisted from reproducing in whole or in substantial part AstuteWheel’s Health Check, or any other copyright work of Astute Wealth without the licence of Astute Wealth.

Hans Egger, Astute Wealth managing director, said the substantial similarity in the words used in the questionnaire, coupled with the fact that Lumiant had specifically mentioned AstuteWheel as a domestic competitor in a fundraising Offer Document dated 11 November, 2020, indicated that it was likely that Lumiant had copied Astute Wealth’s material. 

“It is extremely disappointing to discover that a financial services company appears to have copied our material,” Egger said.

“Given all that has happened in and to the financial advice industry in Australia over the past decade, if any industry knows how imperative it is to behave with honesty and integrity, it is this one.

“We will not stand by and allow Lumiant to reproduce our intellectual property for their commercial advantage.”

In a statement to Money Management, a spokesperson said: “Lumiant supports fair business and will not be providing comments on ongoing legal matters until appropriate”.