Is plagiarism a form of flattery? Well, on Wall Street, good ideas are meant to be replicated--fast. Despite the patent wars that continue to rage, Lehman Brothers was forced to issue a letter to clients apologizing for lifting parts of two 2007 research reports on virtualization technology written by Sanford Bernstein, which prides itself on its independent research. Lehman says the material was not attributed properly and was used without permission. The staff analyst who appropriated the data is apparently no longer at the firm. This situation begs for a fall guy. You've got to wonder if this reflects the state of sell-side research. Resources aren't what they used to be. They've long been considered sweatshops at the junior level, but someone ought to be vetting this stuff.

For more:
- here's the Financial News Online article