Tolkien Estate and Amazon Win ‘Lord of the Rings’ Cases – Deadline

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The Tolkien Estate and Amazon have prevailed in their legal battle with the author who first published a book titled The company of the king She then demanded $250 million after claiming Prime Video stole the idea for her TV series.

In court documents released by a California District Court on December 14, the two cases brought by Demetrius Polychron were dismissed by Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who ordered Polychron to pay Tolkien’s estate and legal fees to Amazon totaling approximately $134,000 (read Tolkien’s order here).

In 2017, the same year that Warner Bros. and the Tolkien Estate settled their five-year legal battle for $80 million, Polychron recorded a fan fiction sequel titled The company of the kingwhich he claimed was “the perfect sequel to.” the Lord of the Rings“, according to the Tolkien Estate’s attorney. Incredibly, he filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in April of this year, claiming that the Amazon TV series Power rings He violated copyright in his book.

Wilson’s ruling dismissed the allegations related to the Amazon TV series and granted a permanent injunction, which prevents Polychron from distributing any further copies of The company of the kingOr its planned sequel to this book, or any other derivative work based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s books. He is also required to destroy all physical and electronic copies of his book and submit a statement, under penalty of perjury, that he has complied. The judge also denied Polychron’s requests to have its legal fees paid by Amazon and the estate.

“This is a significant success for the Tolkien estate, which will no longer allow unauthorized authors and publishers to monetize JRR Tolkien’s beloved works in this way,” said Stephen Mair, Tolkien’s UK lawyer. Deadline has reached out to Polychron for comment and will update this post if it responds.

Amazon Lord of the rings The TV series is the most expensive TV series ever and there is a second season in the near future.

Last year, the Swedish video game company acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of Saul Zaentz, which owned the intellectual property catalog and global rights to the game. the Lord of the Rings Triple f The hobbit. Under current copyright laws, Tolkien’s works will enter the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2044, 95 years after his first works were published.

Lance Koonce and Gilly Karev of Clarice Law, New York, represent the Tolkien estate.

Dominic Patten contributed to this report