Plagiarism Claim Against Harry Potter Publisher Denied

Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc responded on Monday to claims that J.K. Rowling, author of the now-famous "Harry Potter" series of novels, copied parts of her work from another children’s book. The claim, made specifically in regard to "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," came from the Estate of Adrian Jacobs. The book was published in 2000 and was the fourth of the highly successful series which has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.

Noted a statement from Bloomsbury, "The allegations of plagiarism made today, Monday 15 June 2009, by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs are unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue. This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously." A statement from Jacobs’ estate had been issued earlier, noting, "The Estate is also seeking a court order against J.K. Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the action." The statement named Paul Allen as the trustee of the estate and noted that Rowling copied "substantial parts" of "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard – No 1 Livid Land," which Jacobs wrote in 1987.

The statement from Jacobs’ estate also notes that the Harry Potter book copied various plot elements from Willy the Wizard. According to the statement: "Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures. It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before J.K. Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published."