One Work To Rule Them All?

Battle lines have recently been drawn, after fan fiction writer, Demetrious Polychron, filed a 250-million-dollar lawsuit against the Tolkien Estate and Amazon on the basis of copyright infringement. Mr Polychron claims that his novel,The Fellowship of the King, which draws inspiration from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, is a wholly original book and concept that was infringed by the Amazon Prime Original Series,The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

In his arsenal, Mr Polychron relies on the fact that his work was registered with the US Copyright Office in 2017, and that a copy of his manuscript was sent to Tolkien's grandson (and director of the Tolkien Estate), Simon Tolkien, for his review. After his first approach went unanswered, Mr Polychron alleges that his attorneys then attempted to contact the Estate again in 2019, in the hopes of brokering a collaboration. When it became clear that the Estate had no interest in collaborating with Mr Polychron, a final