A.M. Best Company has resolved a copyright infringement lawsuit against SNL Financial dating back to 2011.
Neither side is disclosing detailed terms of the confidential settlement, which addresses the rating’s agency’s initial lawsuit against SNL regarding its use of A.M. Best Credit Ratings and credit rating action announcements in SNL products.
Resolution of the case follows added wrinkle from mid-2015, when McGraw Hill Financial bought SNL Financial from New Mountain Capital for $2.23 billion in order to boost its content on the banking and insurance industries. McGraw Hill subsidiaries include A.M. Best rival Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and the S&P Dow Jones Indices.
As part of the settlement, A.M. Best will license S&P Global and its subscribers A.M. Best Credit Ratings and other proprietary content. In turn, S&P Global, S&P Global Market Intelligence and SNL agree to “recognize and respect the copyrights and other valuable intellectual property rights in credit ratings, including those of A.M. Best,” the settlement announcement noted.
SNL Financial is currently being integrated with the S&P Capital IQ business unit, and operated under the S&P Global Market Intelligence brand.
Source: S&P Global; A.M. Best Co.