Adrian Jacobs has today issued proceedings in the High Court of England against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the publishers of J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" series for copyright infringement.The Estate, acting through its trustee Paul Allen, claims that in writing the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling copied substantial parts of the work of the late Adrian Jacobs, "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", and that Bloomsbury in selling the books have infringed the Estate's copyright."The Estate is also seeking a Court order against JK Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the..action" 1987 Adrian Jacobs wrote the book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", which describes the adventures of a wizard named Willy.Mr Jacobs' book was ultimately published by Bachman and Turner in 1987. However, following a stock market crash, Jacobs became bankrupt and died penniless in a London hospice in 1997. By contrast, today the Potter Brand is a multibillion dollar global entertainment phenomenon.
Many other similarities are described in the Claim filed by the Estate, which include the idea of wizards travelling on trains, famously referred to in Harry Potter as the Hogwarts Express. It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before JK Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published.It is also alleged that, at the time in trying to get his work published, Mr Jacobs sought the services of a literary agent, Christopher Little, who also later became Ms Rowling's literary agent in the Harry Potter series.
