Demetrious Polychron Sued By Tolkien Estate Over Unauthorized 'Lord Of The Rings' Trilogy Sequel
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Hobbits. Rings. Magic. Power. All these things are elements of the beloved fantasy franchise The Lord of the Rings. But now there is conflict brooding between Demetrious Polychron (the writer of a sequel novel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy called The Fellowship of the King) and J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate. The estate has filed a lawsuit against Polychron, claiming the novel was unauthorized.
This lawsuit follows on the heels of a lawsuit that Polychron filed against the Tolkien Trust and Amazon Inc. after their release of the hit TV series The Rings of Power, which claimed that the tech company infringed upon copyrights to his sequel novel. Let’s track the events concerning this situation.
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In March, the estate learned that Polychron was selling his sequel novel online and sent him a cease-and-desist letter. According to the complaint sent last Thursday, Polychron had been in contact with Tolkien’s grandson from 2017 about writing a sequel; however, the estate has a policy about not licensing writers to create any sequels. The estate made multiple attempts in April and March to contact Polychron to resolve the issue, but got no response because he claimed to be “bedridden.”
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However, according to the complaint that was filed by the estate, “Plaintiffs were therefore surprised to discover that, on the same day Defendant claimed to be physically incapable of correspondence, Defendant had in fact filed a lawsuit in this District Court against the Tolkien estate and others.” Polychron’s suit went to claim that his novel was “admittedly inspired” by The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the estate and Amazon used it for their TV series, resulting in the lawsuit by Polychron. It will be interesting to see how these opposing lawsuits are resolved.
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Sources: Bloomberg Law, Twitter
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