Katie Charleston of Katie Charleston Law, PC takes the helm to represent Demetrious Polychron, an award-winning Los Angeles-based writer vs Amazon Studios and the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate.
Carmel, Indiana, United States - May 23, 2023 —
Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, several executives at Amazon Studios, and the estate of British writer J.R.R. Tolkien are the defendants in a $250 million copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Demetrious Polychron, an award-winning Los Angeles-based writer who is represented by Carmel copyright attorney Katie Charleston.
Tolkien’s famous Lord of the Rings fantasy trilogy has been the basis for dozens of adaptations and spinoffs, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, an 8-episode television series released by Amazon Prime Video in 2022. The series is reportedly the most expensive television production ever created, with a budget of $1 billion.
The lawsuit claims that Polychron, who published an original spinoff titled The Fellowship of the King, also conceived a 7-book series titled The War of the Rings. Polychron obtained a copyright for the Fellowship novel in 2017, and he claims that he asked Tolkien’s grandson, Simon Tolkien, to review the book, but he received no response.
Polychron says that he even left a copy of his manuscript at Tolkien’s grandson’s home in 2019, and again, he was never contacted. Amazon bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings from the Tolkien estate in November 2017. However, the television series and Polychron’s Fellowship novel are both set thousands of years before the story in the original trilogy.
The lawsuit claims that Polychron’s “wholly original distinct and separate characters and storylines compose as much as one-half of the 8-episode series as released and published by Defendants. In many cases, Defendants copied exact language” from Polychron’s manuscript.
“In other instances,” the lawsuit continues, “Defendants copied images that match the book cover and descriptions as created in the book as authored by Polychron.” The lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Katie Charleston Law, with offices in Carmel (in the greater Indianapolis area) and in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a national law firm that focuses on copyright, trademark, and intellectual property protection.
Contact Info:
Name: Katie Charleston
Email: Send Email
Organization: Katie Charleston Law, PC
Address: 1905 South New Market Street, Suite 169 Carmel, Indiana 46032
Phone: 317-663-9190
Website: https://katiecharlestonlaw.com/
Release ID: 89098241
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