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Lawsuit in Russia may follow Potter vs. Grotter hearings in Amsterdam

MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - The publishers of the Harry Potter series may appeal to a Russian court after a lawsuit they filed with the court of Amsterdam against the Tanya Grotter publishers.

Dmitry Yemets, the author of a series about Tanya Grotter, a young sorceress, and the Biblos Dutch-based publishing house, which is due to release 7,000 copies of the first foreign edition of "Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double Bass" in April, will face the Amsterdam court on March 25. Natalia Dolgova, head of the press service of the Rosmen publishing house, which holds the copyright to the Russian edition of the Harry Potter series, made this statement to Interfax on Thursday.

"JK Rowling and her lawyers, the London-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green and MacRae, have charged the writer and the publishing house with unscrupulous writing and plagiarism," Dolgova said. The British writer is trying to contain the foreign release of Harry Potter's "clone" in court.

The hearings at the Amsterdam court "will be sort of an impetus" for a lawsuit in a Russian court against Yemets and the Eksmo publishing house, which releases Russian copies of Tanya Grotter, Dolgova said.

"If Russia believes that it is a civilized country, it must have court hearings on Tanya Grotter. And so far it appeasr that the Dutch justice system works more quickly," she remarked.

JK Rowling's appeal to the Amsterdam court will create "a precedent to prevent dishonest competition of this sort in literature," she said.

Meanwhile, Yemets and the Eksmo publishing house are sure that they "will manage to defend Tanya Grotter." They say it is not plagiarism but a creative rewrite of JK Rowling's text and "a Russian reply to the shameless promotion of Harry Potter around the globe."

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