+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UBS Sued for Copying Oil Reports in Investor Research (Update1)
2010-08-11 12:05:51.200 GMT
(Updates with details of lawsuit in seventh paragraph.)
By Lindsay Fortado
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG's U.K. unit was sued for
allegedly copying articles from oil and gas publications and
reprinting them in the investment research it distributed to
clients.
Energy Intelligence Group Inc., based in New York, said its
publications, which include International Oil Daily, World Gas
Intelligence and Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, were copied by
UBS Ltd. at least 10 times during 2006 and 2007, according to
the lawsuit. Energy Intelligence articles or portions of them
were reprinted in UBS's own investment research publication,
Daily Oil News, according to the suit filed in a London court
last month and made public this week.
UBS analyst Jon Rigby had a single-user subscription for
the Energy Intelligence publications beginning as long as 10
years ago, according to the suit. Rigby, based in London, is the
global coordinator of the bank's Daily Oil News publication,
which is distributed in at least 17 countries including the
U.S., U.K., Germany, Russia and China, Energy Intelligence said.
UBS, based in Zurich, has been copying the publications
"in a systematic manner over a long period of time for the
purposes of enhancing its profile and reputation amongst its
customers and potential customers," according to the lawsuit.
"The defendant threatens and intends to repeat the acts of
infringement."
UBS spokesman Dominik von Arx declined to comment.
Infringement, Injunction
The publisher's suit seeks unspecified damages from UBS for
copyright infringement and an injunction to stop UBS and its
employees from copying the articles.
"The acts of the defendant were carried out flagrantly and
in the belief that the benefit to be so gained far exceeded the
damages at risk," the lawsuit said.
Energy Intelligence charges subscribers an additional fee
to reproduce an article from one of its publications, according
to the lawsuit. The publisher said it was unable to determine
how many times UBS copied stories or "the full extent" to
which they were distributed.
The bank showed "cynical disregard" by printing its own
copyright prohibiting the redistribution of the material on each
publication of Daily Oil News, according to Energy Intelligence.
The case is Energy Intelligence Group v. UBS Ltd., case no.
HC10C02381, High Court of Justice, Chancery Division (London).
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
Legal Functions: BLAW <GO>
Top Legal News: TLAW <GO>
Most-Read Legal News: MNI LAW <GO>
--Editors: Christopher Scinta, James Amott.
To contact the reporter for this story:
Lindsay Fortado in London at +44-20-3216-4806 or
lfortado@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at +44-20-7673-2227 or
aaarons@bloomberg.net.
