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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Safi Bugel

Copyright claim against Tolkien estate backfires on Lord of the Rings fanfiction author

Demetrious Polychron JRR Tolkien Amazon King Charles III United States
Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The judge called Polychron’s claim for copyright protection ‘unreasonable’ and ‘frivolous’ given that his work was based on Lord of the Rings characters. Photograph: New Line Cinema/Sportsphoto/Allstar

A Lord of the Rings fanfiction writer has lost a copyright lawsuit over the publication of his own sequel to the much-loved series after opening up a counterproductive legal battle against JRR Tolkien’s estate.

The US-based author Demetrious Polychron published what he described as the “pitch-perfect” Lord of the Rings follow-up in 2022, titled The Fellowship of the King. He planned for the book to be the first of a seven-part series inspired by the franchise.

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