The Tolkien Estate And Amazon Win Lawsuit Over Fan Fiction Copyright Infringement
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A final resolution has been reached in the drawn-out copyright lawsuit between a fanfiction author and Amazon and the Tolkien Estate. The author lost in the end, resulting in an order to pay hefty attorney fees and a permanent injunction against the fanfiction novels in question. This is the second resolution in the overall legal battle.
The first lawsuit was filed in April 2023 when author Demetrious Polychron alleged that Amazon and the Tolkien Estate stole plot points from his book for The Rings of Power; he wrote a fanfiction sequel to The Lord of the Rings titled The Fellowship of the King, the first of a planned seven book-long series. The suit was dismissed with prejudice by a California judge in August 2023. Not long after Polychron’s initial suit, the Tolkien Estate counter-sued the author.
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Image Source: IMDb
A California judge ruled in favor of the Tolkien Estate for their counter-suit. Polychron has to pay over $130,000 in attorney fees and is permanently barred from “copying, distributing, selling, performing, displaying or otherwise exploiting” his fanfiction series; a destruction order for physical and digital copies of the works is also in place.
Steven Maier, a UK legal representative for the Estate, commented on the outcome of this lawsuit (via Variety):
“This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorized authors and publishers to monetize JRR Tolkien’s much-loved works in this way. This case involved a serious infringement of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the Estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.”
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