Harry Potter author JK Rowling has succeeded in blocking publication of an encyclopaedia which she described as "wholesale theft" of her work.
US District Judge Robert Patterson said Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon would cause her irreparable harm as a writer.
The judge, sitting at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse in the Southern District of New York, permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros Entertainment £3,850 in statutory damages.
Rowling said she was "delighted" with the ruling.
"I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work," she said. "The court has upheld that right."
Warner Bros also said it was pleased with the ruling.
Rowling told the court the Harry Potter Lexicon, based on the internet fan site of the same name, "constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work".
Lexicon publisher RDR Books said it was "disappointed" with the result and would consider "all of its options".
But it added: "We are encouraged by the fact the court recognised that as a general matter authors do not have the right to stop the publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works."
Rowling said that she takes "no pleasure" in preventing the Lexicon's publication and added that she felt "sad and disillusioned" that the case had ended up before the courts.
But she said she could not "approve of 'companion books' or 'encyclopaedias' that seek to pre-empt my definitive Potter reference book for their authors' own personal gain".
Source: ITN ltd
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