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Tolkien estate wins two lawsuits against author of unauthorised Lord of the Rings sequel
The Estate of J R R Tolkien has won two lawsuits against author Demetrious Polychron over his book The Fellowship of the King, which he published and commercially promoted as “the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings”.
Polychron launched a lawsuit against the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in April of this year, claiming that Amazon’s TV series “The Rings of Power” infringed the copyright in his book.
The US District Court summarily dismissed that case, finding that Polychron’s own book was infringing and could not be used as the basis for a claim.
The Tolkien Estate filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to prevent The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.
In judgments issued by Judge Steven V Wilson on 14th December, the court awarded the Tolkien Estate summary judgment on its claim, granting a permanent injunction which prevents Polychron from ever distributing any further copies of The Fellowship of the King, his planned sequels to that book, or any other derivative work based on the books of J R R Tolkien. He is also required to destroy all physical and electronic copies of his book and to file a declaration, under penalty of perjury, that he has complied.
The court also awarded attorney’s fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron’s lawsuit, which the court found to have been “frivolously and unreasonably” filed.
Lance Koonce and Gili Karev of Klaris Law, New York, represented the Tolkien Estate.
The estate’s UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: “This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetize J R R 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.”
