Author's Heart Throbs Over Romance Publisher's Alleged Infringement

Bob Casey Federal Courthouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Toronto-based Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd., which boasts publishing more than 110 romantic potboilers monthly in 31 languages sold worldwide, faces a copyright infringement suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas from an author who claims the company produced a novel in 2011 that infringed on her work written two years earlier.

In her 8-page complaint, Rucker v. Harlequin Enterpises Ltd. (Case No. 4:2012-cv-01135), Kelly Rucker alleges more than 40 instances in which Harlequin's The Proud Wife purportedly infringes on her tome, How to Love a Billionaire. Although Courthouse News Service reports the complaint does not specify any purportedly plagiarized passages, Rucker claims the defendant had access to her work through her submission of the manuscript to competitions sponsored by the Romantic Writers of America.

The complaint alleges The Proud Wife has been financially successful for Harlequin and garnered positive reviews. Rucker is seeking all the profits from the Harlequin novel, along with damages for copyright infringement. Expect to see lots of heaving bosoms, burning stares and masculine tumescence in the courtroom.