"Harry Potter" Publisher Sued for Copyright Infringement
Lawsuit claims Willy the Wizard served as inspiration for the Harry Potter books.
July 19, 2010 at 08:00 PM
1 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
There is no magic between Scholastic Inc. and the trustee of the late British author Adrien Jacobs, who alleges there are striking similarities between “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and “The Adventures of Willy the Wizard.”
The suit, filed July 13, requests that Scholastic stop selling “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and destroy all of its copies of the book. It also asks that the publisher pay the plaintiff all profits derived from the book's sale.
The trustee of Jacobs claims that “Willy the Wizard,” published in 1987, and “Harry Potter” have several similarities. Both contain a yearlong wizard contest that the protagonist wins because of key insight for discovered in a bathroom. Jacob's trustee also claims the plotline of “rescuing hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal creatures,” was plagiarized.
However, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling claims she never read “The Adventures of Willy the Wizard.”
The claim was “completely without merit,” Scholastic said in a written statement.
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