Harry Potter Boffo at the Box Office and in the Courtroom

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The copyright infringement suit in the U.K. against Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling (see "TUOL" post 2/18/10) has been derailed by the claimant's inability to post the court-ordered security, Reuters reports.

The estate of children's book author Adrian Jacobs could not raise the 1.6 million pounds ($2,605, 653) required by the court as security against the cost of the case were it to proceed to trial, missing the Friday deadline to come up with the initial 800,000 pounds ($1,384,337). Jacobs was the author of the 32-page The Adventures of Willy the Wizard--No. 1 Livid Land (1987), which his heirs claimed was copied by Rowling in her 734-page Children's Book Award-winning Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which has sold more than 400 million copies.

In January of this year, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York Shira Sheindlin found "no overlap" in dismissing the Jacobs' estate copyright infringement claim in Paul Gregory Allen, Trustee of the Estate of Adrian Jacobs v. Scholastic, Inc. (Case No. 10-CV-5335) (See "TUOL" post 1/11/11).

Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2 has thus far grossed more than $48 million domestically at the box office, thank you very much, so it's been a good month for Rowling.

Rowling Added as Defendant in Harry Potter Copyright Suit

Cover of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The estate of the late Australian author Adrian Jacobs has added author JK Rowling as a defendant in its copyright infringement suit against Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, publisher of Rowling's hugely successful Harry Potter series.

The suit (see "TUOL" post 6/17/09) alleges that Rowling's fourth book in the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), lifted liberally from Jacobs' book, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard No. 1: Livid Land.

Rowling denies ever hearing of Jacobs, and dismisses the accusations as unfounded and "absurd." The agent for the Jacobs estate described the dispute as a billion-dollar case, which is Voldemort reason why the matter wound up in litigation.

Sorry.