Lord Of The Rings ‘sequel’ must be destroyed, court rules

All physical and electronic copies of a Lord of the Rings sequel written by a fan fiction author must be destroyed, a US district court.

Demetrious Polychron was sued for copyright infringement after publishing a book last year titled The Fellowship of the King - which he described as 'the pitch-perfect' follow-up to JRR Tolkien's epic fantasy novels.

It came after he initially tried to take legal action against the British author and philologist's estate as well as streaming giant Amazon, claiming that the TV series The Rings Of Power infringed the copyright in his book.

The programme is set thousands of years before before Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were even thought of in the Second Age of Middle Earth, pre-Lord of the Rings.

It takes 'viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin'.

Polychron's case was dismissed by a US district court, who then pointed out that his own work was the one which had breached copyright.

The Tolkien estate then launched proceedings to try and block The Fellowship of the King - and a court has ruled in their favour.

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A permanent injunction has been granted which bans the distribution of the Lord of the Rings inspired novel as well as prohibiting Polychron from writing any further books based on Tolkien's work.

Judge Steven V Wilson called the original lawsuit 'frivolous and unreasonably filed' and said the fan fiction author is unable to sell his 2022 book or any other planned sequels - of which there were six.

The late author's estate said all copies of the 'sequel' must be destroyed and that Polychron has to sign a declaration confirming he has complied, as stipulated in the court ruling.

New Line Cinema

The US writer also has to fork out £106,000 ($134,000) in legal fees to Tolkien's estate and Amazon to cover the costs of his initial lawsuit.

The Tolkien estate's UK solicitor, Steven Maier, 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 attorneys' fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions."

Warner Bros earlier confirmed that there will be more Lord of the Rings films released in the next few years.