UBS to fight plagiarism accusations
UBS last night said it would “vigorously” fight a potentially embarrassing lawsuit from a small news agency, which has accused the investment bank of lifting copyrighted material for its in-house updates.
Energy Intelligence, an oil and gas reporting service, claims UBS reproduced parts of its articles for its own energy newsletter, Daily Oil News. It is understood UBS’ publication is an aggregation of sector-specific news rather than proprietary analysis.
UBS lifted information from Energy Intelligence and sent it out to clients at least 10 times between 2006 and 2007, according to papers filed at the High Court of Justice.
At the heart of the case is London-based UBS oil analyst Jon Rigby. Rigby had a single-user subscription to Energy Intelligence news and coordinated the institution’s Daily Oil News publication, which is sent out to 17 countries, the lawsuit alleges.
According to Bloomberg, UBS is accused of acting “in a systematic manner over a long period of time… [with a view to] enhancing its profile.”
UBS stated: “UBS intends to defend the case vigorously.”