Plagiarism claims: JK Rowling is accused of copying part of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from Adrian Jacobs 'Willy the Wizard' book JK Rowling has been personally dragged into a long-running £500million legal battle over claims she copied Harry Potter from an earlier children's book.
The multi-millionaire author has been named in the lawsuit originally filed last year against publisher Bloomsbury for alleged copyright infringement.
The estate of Adrian Jacobs maintains Miss Rowling stole ideas from one of his books about Willy The Wizard for her work, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
But the author immediately issued a statement dismissing the claim as 'absurd' and is applying to have the case thrown out.
Mr Jacobs's 36-page book, also about a child discovering he has magical powers, was published in 1987, ten years before the first Harry Potter book and three years before Miss Rowling says she came up with her idea.
His estate says many 'concepts and themes' were copied from Willy The Wizard in The Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the series, published in 2000.
In both books the main character competes in a magic contest and each features wizard trains and prisons.
Miss Rowling said yesterday: 'I am saddened that yet another claim has been made that I have taken material from another source to write Harry. The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author's estate in 2004.
Denial: JK Rowling has dismissed allegations she copied some of the book from The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, below, as 'absurd' and 'unfounded'
'The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd and I am disappointed that I, and my UK publisher Bloomsbury, are put in a position to have to defend ourselves.' Mr Jacobs died penniless in a London hospice in 1997, before the Harry Potter phenomenon took the world by storm. Australian-based agent Max Markson, who represents Paul Allen, the trustee of Jacobs's estate, said: 'I estimate it's a billion-dollar case.'
Mr Markson claimed the Harry Potter book was identical to the theme of Willy The Wizard.
The estate also claims that Mr Jacobs had sent the book to literary agent Christopher Little, attributed as the man who years later discovered JK Rowling.
Mr Allen said: 'Adrian Jacobs did not live long enough to see the massive success of the Harry Potter books and films. If he had, he would have sought the proper recognition of his contribution to this success story.'
Bloomsbury has called the allegations 'unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue'. One copyright lawyer said the claim would 'struggle' if it simply concerned 'ideas' and ' concepts' rather than specific text being copied.
But for the case to be thrown out, Miss Rowling would have to show it was a 'preposterous' claim, he said.
source: dailymail
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