Update on The Rings of Power Lawsuit – Beragampengetahuan

Amazon Studios The Rings of Power is here. The Second season is on its way. We want all Spoilerites to have the best viewing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Second Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!

In past articles I have answered the question: 

Who owns the rights to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien? Over the past decade we’ve seen rights for various adaptations and mediums shift around Warner Bros, Amazon, Embracer (the Swedish gaming group), and The Tolkien Estate, itself. 

Recently, there was a quiet bit of drama around books and publishing not prompted by any of the entities listed above.

Just when you think things can’t get any more wild, the world of Lord of the Rings spins more drama to keep us entertained! 

(please read the above with a joking, sarcastic tone, this isn’t a Real Housewives reunion, it’s a franchise about elves and hobbits …)

Last month both Amazon Studios’ The Rings of Power and The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate found themselves on the victorious side of a copyright lawsuit. If up to this point you were unaware such a lawsuit even existed you are not alone. Variety sums up the accusation as follows:

In April author Demetrious Polychron published a book called “The Fellowship of the King” which he claimed was a sequel to “The Lord of the Rings.” He planned for the book to be the first in a seven-part series.

The author then filed suit against both Amazon and the Tolkien estate, claiming the streaming series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” had borrowed from his sequel and infringed his copyright.

It can now be reported for the first time that a California judge summarily dismissed Polychron’s lawsuit with prejudice in August.

Now, admittedly, in full transparency, I’ve never heard of The Fellowship of the King. At first glance – and if I’m feeling mean – it strikes me as the type of fanfiction myself and many other Lord of the Rings enthusiasts. 

After a cursory Google search I did find The Fellowship of the King listed on Goodreads (feel free to do your own research or take a peek at the link itself), and listed as published in January of 2023, which would be a full quarter of a year later than The Rings of Power premier date of September 1st, 2022. 

After reading the description provided by Goodreads I would state only the vaguest details are shared between The Fellowship of the King and The Rings of Power – in so much that there is a young female hobbit leading character. Which is about as much detail as The Fellowship of the King shares with The Fellowship of the Ring or some of R.A. Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms fantasy books.

If you are curious about the fan reception of The Fellowship of the King Reddit has a thread addressing this very subject. I warn you, it comes with a healthy dose of Reddit-expected snark.

As very much not-a-legal-expert I would contend The Tolkien Estate is poised to sue Polychron and win. Variety, and the Tolkien Estate, seem to agree:

The Tolkien estate then countersued the author for infringing on their copyright. A U.S. district judge found in the estate’s favor this fall, granting them a permanent injunction to prevent Polychron from “copying distributing, selling, performing, displaying or otherwise exploiting” his book or its sequel, titled “The Two Trees.” The author was also ordered to destroy all physical and electronic copies of the works.

Closing the chapter on this saga, a California judge has now handed down a costs order, instructing Polychron to pay $134,637 in attorney’s fees to both Amazon and Tolkien. In making the order, Judge Steven V. Wilson noted the “fantasticality” of the Polychron’s claim for copyright protection given his book is entirely based on characters in “The Lord of the Rings,” calling it “unreasonable” and “frivolous from the beginning.”

TL;DR don’t mess with copyright law until things go into the public domain. *side eyes Steamboat Willie*

*and Golden Age Superman on the horizon*