©1987 Adrian Jacobs ©2008 ©2010 The Estate of Adrian Jacobs All rights reserved | Website Design by Chilli Creative Ltd
The Estate of Adrian Jacobs, the deceased British children’s author, regrets that its US breach of copyright action, brought in good faith against Scholastic INC in relation to Harry Potter in the USA has been summarily dismissed by a New York Judge..The Estate is now examining the judgement for possible grounds of appeal.
10 day trial
The Trustee Paul Allen stated that This US decision has no legal bearing upon the Estate’s established action in the High Court of England against J.K.Rowling personally and her publishers Bloomsbury over breach of copyright in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. That case is scheduled for a 10 day trial in February 2012 when the Estate hopes that evidence and cross examination will be heard in open court for the first time. Major Disclosures are expected over the next few months.
Startling similarities
The English case, involves allegations by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs that J.K. Rowling copied a substantial part of Jacobs’ visionary 1987 book The Adventures of Willy The Wizard No 1 Livid Land, into her book Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire published 13 years later by Bloomsbury…Trustee Paul Allen says "Jacobs’ Estate will continue to vigorously pursue its Claim in London
The massive amount of evidence brought by the Estate, in the English High Court included forensic linguistic analysis, factual testimony relating to Rowling and her agent Chris Little, and evidence from experts in Children’s fantasy literature demonstrating startling similarities between the two books."
Jacobs original expression of ideas copied
In The Adventures of Willy The Wizard, a short, densely written, beautifully illustrated book, Adrian Jacobs created a fantasy world intertwined with the real world in which there are Wizard Schools, Villages of Wizard Brewers, Gambling Wizards, Wizard Chess played on Wizard Trains, special Wizard Hospitals, Wizard Travel by magic powder, apparently headless creatures, Elves as Wizard Helpers, International Gatherings of Wizards, Human Memory Erasers, etc. The Estate claims that All of these Jacobs’ concepts are part of Jacobs' s,many new to the genre,echoed and copied in Harry Potter and familiar now to Potter readers,.