Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling accused of plagiarizing from children's wizard book

The lawsuit alleges that a significant part of Jacobs's 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No 1 Livid Land" was replicated in Rowling's book "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire," published in 2000.

Jacobs' estate entered a lawsuit against Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of the Harry Potter series, in a London court last June. The suit claims that Jacobs used concepts and themes such as wizard prisons, wizard hospitals and wizard colleges years before Rowling did. The two authors also shared an agent, Christopher Little, who manages the Harry Potter brand worldwide.

The multi-millionaire author said she had never heard of Jacobs or read the book before the plagiarism claims emerged.

She called claims completely unfounded and "absurd".

"I am saddened that yet another claim has been made that I have taken material from another source to write Harry. The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author's estate in 2004; I have certainly never read the book," she said.

"The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd and I am disappointed that I, and my UK publisher Bloomsbury, are put in a position to have to defend ourselves. We will be applying to the Court immediately for a ruling that the claim is without merit and should therefore be dismissed without delay," she added.