Potter publisher sued for 500m

Bloomsbury Publishing are being sued for alleged plagiarism...

14:03 16 June 2009

JK Rowling and the publishers of the 'Harry Potter' books are being sued for 500 million for alleged plagiarism.

Legal action from the Estate of Adrian Jacobs claims that Rowling copied "substantial parts" of Adrian Jacobs' 1987 book 'The Adventures of Willy the Wizard - No 1 Livid Land' when writing the fourth Harry Potter novel, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'.

However Bloomsbury Publishing has denied the claims labeling it as "unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue".

A statement added: "This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorous."

The Estate goes on to claim that Jacobs died "penniless" in 1997 and had sought the services of agent Christopher Little, who later became Rowling's literary agent.

Bloomsbury said however that Rowling "had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicised Harry Potter series."

The statement added: "Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution. The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school."

Legal proceedings have been issued and the estate is also seeking to prevent any further sales of 'The Goblet of Fire'.