Lawsuit claiming Harry Potter author JK Rowling copied ideas from rival writer ... - Daily Mail

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:46 PM on 7th January 2011

Original: JK Rowling's Harry Potter creation has become a multi-billion-pound industry

Harry Potter author JK Rowling is celebrating after a lawsuit claiming that she copied the work of another writer was dismissed.

The estate of late auther Adrian Jacobs claimed that the plot of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - the fourth of seven in the massively popular Potter series - was lifted from Mr Jacobs' 1987 children's book Willy The Wizard No 1: Livid Land.

Mr Jacob's son and grandson sued Ms Rowling for 500million - claiming that several themes in the book penned by Mr Jacobs were duplicated in The Goblet Of Fire, which was published in 2000.

In both books, the boy wizards compete in a magic contests, and the lawsuit also notes both have the boys trying to rescue human hostages held by half-human creatures from a bathroom.

Shared references to a wizard train and a wizard prison were also part of the allegations.

But a judge in the U.S. has now rejecetd the Jacobs allegations, stating: 'The contrast between the total concept and feel of the works is so stark that any serious comparison of the two strains credulity.'

Miss Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic Corp, welcomed the ruling, saying: 'The court's swift dismissal supports our position that the case was completely without merit and that comparing Willy the Wizard to the Harry Potter series was absurd.'

Spot the difference: Adrian Jacobs' 1987 Willy The Wizard, and JK Rowling's Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

Mr Jacobs, who lost all his money in a stock market crash in 1991, died in 1997, so did not live to see the Harry Potter books' success, which was turned into a multi-billion-pound film franchise.

To support their case, his relatives pointed out that Mr Jacobs originally sent his script to a literary agent with Bloomsbury Publishing who went on to represent Miss Rowling.

But Miss Rowling has always maintained that she had never heard of Mr Jacobs or his work until the copyright claim was made in 2004.

Cult figure: Daniel Radcliffe as the central character in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

 

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