Tolkien estate wins copyright lawsuit against The Fellowship Of The King author

The estate of Lord Of The Rings writer JRR Tolkien has won a lawsuit against US author Demetrious Polychron over his book The Fellowship Of The King.

A US judge granted a permanent injunction against Mr Polychron, preventing him from distributing any further copies of the 2022 book which the author previously claimed was the sequel to The Lord Of The Rings.

Mr Polychron must also “permanently destroy all physical and electronic copies” of the book, and he is banned from any planned sequels or any other derivative work based on the books of JRR Tolkien, US district judge Stephen V Wilson ruled.

A general view of fans at the global premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power in August. PA Media

It comes after Mr Polychron filed a lawsuit against the Tolkien estate and Amazon in April 2023, claiming they had unlawfully based TV series The Rings Of Power on his book.

A US court granted a motion to dismiss the case in August before the Tolkien estate filed a separate lawsuit requesting a permanent injunction against Mr Polychron – which was granted on Thursday.

The court also awarded lawyers’ fees totalling 134,637 dollars (£106,465) to the Tolkien estate and Amazon.

Steven Maier, of Maier Blackburn, the estate’s UK solicitor, 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 the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.”

Lance Koonce and Gili Karev, of Klaris Law in New York, represented the Tolkien estate in the case while Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT) represented Amazon.

Mr Polychron has been contacted for comment.