2023-12-19 13:55:29
The Estate of JRR Tolkien, the British foundation that brings together the heirs of the writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), has won two lawsuits against the American author Demetrious Polychron for his book ‘The Fellowship of the King’, which had released and commercially promoted as “the perfect sequel to ‘The Lord of the Rings'”.
In April of this year Polychron filed a civil lawsuit against The Estate of Tolkien Estate and Amazon, claiming that Amazon’s television series “The Lord of the Rings” infringed the copyright of his book, having it in good part copied for the screenplay.
The California District Court summarily dismissed the lawsuit, finding that Polychron’s book itself constituted infringement and could not be used as the basis for a claim for damages (the alleged plagiarist had claimed as much as $250 million in damages). The Estate of Tokien has filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron seeking an injunction preventing further distribution of “The Fellowship of the King.”
In the ruling issued by Judge Steven V. Wilson on December 14, the court imposed a permanent injunction preventing Polychron from distributing further copies of his book and from making other derivative works based on JRR Tolkien’s novels. The judge also ordered Polychron to destroy all physical and electronic copies of his book and to submit a declaration, under penalty of perjury, that he has complied with the statute of limitations.
The California court also awarded legal fees totaling $134,000 to The Estate of Tolkien and Amazon in connection with Polychron’s lawsuit, which the judge found was filed in a “frivolous and unreasonable” manner.
Attorneys Lance Koonce and Gili Karev of New York firm Klaris Law represented The Estate of Tolkien in court in Los Angeles. The lawyer for Tolkien’s estate in the UK, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: “This is a major success for The Estate of Tolkien, which will not allow unauthorized authors and publishers to monetise much-loved works in this way by JRR Tolkien. This case involved serious copyright infringement of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the copyright estate hopes that the grant of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will be sufficient to deter others who might have similar intentions.”
(by Paolo Martini)
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