Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

J.K. Rowling Sues Rude Publisher To Stop Harry Potter Knockoff

MANHATTAN (CN) - RDR Books plans to violate copyright by publishing a 400-page "Harry Potter Lexicon" on Nov. 28, and added insult to injury by lying to and treating J.K. Rowling rudely as she "did everything (she) could to engage in substantive dialogue" with the pirate publisher, whose actions are "particularly troubling" because Rowling intends to donate profits from her own companion books to charity, Rowling says in Federal Court.

Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment say RDR's willful unfair competition and copyright violation is "particularly troubling as it is in direct contravention to Ms. Rowling's repeatedly stated intention to publish her own companion books to the series and donate proceeds of such books to charity, as she already has done in the past with respect to the first two companion guides she authored, "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

She adds: "Ms. Rowling has only authorized limited derivative works of her series and has never authorized a companion guide to engage in such wholesale misappropriation of her work.

"Plaintiffs did everything they could prior to filing this lawsuit to engage in a substantive dialogue with Defendant only to be rebuffed and treated rudely. For example, which claiming not to have the ability or time to respond to Plaintiffs' multiple 'cases and desist' letters because of a family tragedy, Defendant instead was hawking foreign publishing rights to the Infringing Book in Germany. Moreover, Defendant had the audacity to accuse Warner bros. of violating the purported copyrights of the Infringing Book's author in a timeline based on the 'Harry Potter' Books - a complete fabrication apparently intended to deflect Plaintiffs' complaints - but which merely serves to highlight the hypocritical nature of Defendant's conduct."

Represented by O'Melveny & Myers, plaintiffs demand damages and an injunction prohibiting publication and distribution of the offending book.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...