A trustee (Paul Allen) of the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs filed a copyright infringement suit against the US publisher of the Harry Potter series, Scholastic Inc, on 14july, 2010. He claimed that J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, had copied scenes from Jacob's novel, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, to the fourth novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The suit followed a similar case last year, in which the trustee sued the UK publisher of the series, Bloomsbury Publishing plc in 2009 and Rowling in 2010 .Both of these cases are currently pending.
Information related to publication: Willy the Wizard was published in the United Kingdom in 1987, while Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were published in 2000. Willy the Wizard was not published in the United States. Jacobs died in 1997.
Claimant’s claims:
1. Christopher little, a literary agent of Rowling, was originally the literary agent of Jacobs. The claim was denied by Scholastic.
2. J.K. Rowling copied a substantial part of Jacobs' visionary 1987 book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard No 1 Livid Land into her book Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire published 13 years later by Scholastic.
Similarities stated by claimant: The complaint stated that both books, the protagonists are “required to deduce the exact nature of the central task in the competition” and had done so in a bathroom. Both books also involved "rescuing hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal creatures."
Respondent action & Statements: Scholastic called the claim is "completely without merit". And Rowling had said in February that she had never read Jacobs' book. "JK 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".
Claimant demanded that (a)Scholastic should stop selling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (b) Destroys all of its remaining copies of the book (c) Publisher should pay the plaintiff all profits lucrative sales. The plaintiff, trustee Paul Allen, is being represented by attorneys from Andrews Kurth in New York.
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