• Judge bars book publication saying it would cause author irreparable harm
• Rowling/Warner Bros. awarded $6,750 in statutory damages
• Defendant publishing another Potter-based book

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson September 8 ruled in favor of author J.K. Rowling, who sued Steven Vander Ark to stop publication of his volume The Harry Potter Lexicon. Patterson permanently blocked the book’s publication saying that its release would have caused Rowling irreparable harm as a writer. He additionally awarded Rowling and co-plaintiff Warner Bros. $6,750 in statutory damages. Rowling released a press statement saying, “I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that the issue has been resolved favorably. I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work.” Publisher RDR Books claimed that the Lexicon fit under fair use accorded to reference works. Patterson, however, said that the “Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purpose as a reference guide,” adding that “while the Lexicon in its current state is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon’s purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled.” A true fan, Vander Ark said he bore “no ill will whatsoever to Ms. Rowling” and is looking forward to “moving on with other projects,” including In Search of Harry Potter debuting next month from UK house Methuen Publishing. That volume is described as a travelogue listing the actual places Rowling used as models for her mythic world. “The more research I did,” Vander Ark said, “the more I realized that the places in the book were places in the world, particularly those in the west country, because she went to the university of Exeter.” The publisher said there are a “few words” from Rowling’s works included, but in light of the ruling it probably would “delete them.”