Copyright Lawsuit for "Harry Potter" Author
Tuesday July 7, 2009
J K Rowling, famous author of the multi-billion dollar Harry Potter novels, is under fire from another author accused of copyright infringement of a Harry Potter-style character that was created over ten years before the first Potter novel was published. It is alleged that an English writer, Adrian Jacobs, wrote and tried to publish his book Willy the Wizard in 1987 with the same agent who later represented Rowling. The Jacobs book was published by Bachman and Turner in 1987.
Copyright infringement proceedings in the High Court of England have now commenced against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc by the Jacobs estate, as Adrian Jacobs has since died, in a case that has the potential to be worth $1 billion.
The basis of the copyright infringement lawsuit, falling under intellectual property law, comes from the Jacobs book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land which the plaintiff claims is the same story as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was published thirteen years later in 2000. Similarities between the stories include a boy wizard who enters a wizard-ing competition against other wizards for a major prize. A great deal of the plaintiff's case of copyright infringement is based on several key scenes of both books in particular the main characters getting assistance from magical beings in a bathroom in regards to people being imprisoned by half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures, which in Harry Potter were merpeople.
This is one of several points that the plaintiff of the lawsuit makes including the copyright of the idea of a magical train that transports wizards, known in Harry Potter as the Hogwarts Express.
The Jacobs estate is alleging that Adrian Jacobs was the first creator of these concepts and others that form the basis of many key Harry Potter characters and plotlines. In the copyright infringement lawsuit the plaintiff is asking for an injunction to prevent further sales of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in addition to paid damages with an alternative being a percentage of all profits made by Bloomsbury Plc in selling books that allegedly infringe on copyright.
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