The "speculation" failed and the author of "Lord of the Rings" sued Amazon for owing high legal fees

In 2017, an author named Demetrious Polychron registered his novel "The Fellowship of the King" with the US Copyright Office. He then wrote to the director of the Tolkien Foundation, the grandson of JRR Tolkien, the author of "The Lord of the Rings", asking the foundation to review the manuscript.

After receiving no response, he hired a lawyer and contacted the Tolkien Foundation again in 2019, again proposing to cooperate on the project. The Foundation quickly responded and rejected his request, but he still personally delivered a copy of the manuscript to the home of Tolkien's grandson.

After being ignored again, he said he planned to "independently publish" a "six-book series" he had written. In September 2022, when Amazon's "Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Rings" series first aired, he published his novel. Soon after, Polychron filed a lawsuit, claiming that the "Power of the Rings" American TV series borrowed ideas from his novel and demanded $250 million in damages.

However, according to the BBC, his lawsuit was subsequently dismissed. Not only that, but the judge ruled that the situation was actually reversed: Polychron's book actually infringed the copyright of the Amazon show. The Tolkien Foundation then sued him in return, trying to ban him from further publishing his books. Last week, a permanent injunction against his publication of the novel and six sequels was granted. The judge in the case also described Polychron's lawsuit as "frivolous and unreasonable" and ruled that he must pay $134,000 in legal fees to the Tolkien Foundation and Amazon.

Steven Maier, attorney for the Tolkien Estate, said: “This is an important victory for the Tolkien Estate, which will not allow unauthorised publishers to profit from JRR Tolkien’s much-loved works in this way. This case involved serious infringement of the copyright in The Lord of the Rings, which was carried out on a commercial basis, and the Estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will dissuade others who may have similar intentions.”