'Lord Of The Rings' Fan Fiction Author Sued For Copyright After Publishing His Own Sequel

A 'Lord of the Rings' fan fiction writer has been sued for copyright over the publication of his own sequel to the much-loved series. According to the BBC, US-based author Demetrious Polychron published a book called 'The Fellowship of the King' in 2022. He described the book as the "pitch-perfect sequel" to JRR Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings'. However, in April 2023, Mr Polychron attempted to sue the estate of JRR Tolkien and Amazon over the spin-off TV series 'The Rings of Power', which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book.

A California court dismissed Mr Polychron's case after the judge ruled that the writer's own book was, in fact, infringing on Amazon's prequel, released in September 2022. Following this, the Tolkien Estate filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to stop 'The Fellowship of the King' from being further distributed, as per the BBC.

On Thursday, the US court ruled that Mr Polychron must stop distributing copies of the book and destroy all physical and electronic copies. The court also awarded lawyers' fees totalling $134,000 to the Tolkien estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron's lawsuit. 

Making the order, Judge Steven V Wilson called Mr Polychron's lawsuit "frivolous and unreasonably filed" given his work is entirely based on characters in 'The Lord of the Rings'. 

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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 monetise JRR 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 attorney's fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions," he added. 

Notably, in 2022, Amazon launched its blockbuster TV series 'The Rings of Power', which is set thousands of years before the events of Tolkien's original trilogy. A second season is expected to debut on Amazon Prime Video in 2024. The series has been filming its upcoming season for months in the UK and has announced many new cast members are joining the series. Earlier this year it was also confirmed by Warner Bros that more 'Lord of the Rings' films are on the way over the next few years.