You've got my name, why don't you use it

An MBA graduate, who says his professor plagiarised his work, has taken his allegations to civil court.

Paul Boudreau told an Ontario judge when the case began earlier this month that Jimming Lin, a tenured professor in the faculty of administration at the University of Ottawa, published, without his consent, a 29-page paper that had been handed in to Professor Lin in 1991.

The paper surfaced at a New Orleans academic conference a year later and was reprinted in a casebook for a course the professor was teaching at the university. Neither copy bore the student's name.

Mr Boudreau, who now works for an Ottawa telecommunications company, named both the professor and Ottawa University in the Can$50,000 (Pounds 22,625) suit, claiming damages to his reputation and infringement of copyright.

Professor Lin has claimed absent-mindedness, saying a hurried schedule and some family problems led him to leave the student's name off the paper.

After Mr Boudreau complained to the faculty's dean, Professor Lin did apologise to the student and put Mr Boudreau's name, (misspelt, it was pointed out) on the paper used in the course materials.

Professor Lin told the court that he had in fact contributed to the the paper, a study of integrated circuits for telephone systems.