Judge Robert Patterson of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said yesterday that Lexicon author Steven Vander Ark’s reference guide to the Harry Potter novels - a companion publication to the Harry Potter Lexicon website - “appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work” and issued a permanent injunction against the publication.

Vander Ark had argued that the book was protected under the doctrine of fair use, which allows for the unauthorized use of a copyrighted work “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research”.

Judge Roberts found that the Lexicon contained “a troubling amount of direct quotation or close paraphrasing of Rowling’s original language” and ordered Vander Ark and RDR Books to pay a total of $6,750 in statutory damages, the minimum award under the statute.

In a statement, RDR Books said: “We are encouraged by the fact the Court recognized that as a general matter authors do not have the right to stop the publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works. As for the Lexicon, we are obviously disappointed with the result, and RDR is considering all of its options."

In India, the Delhi High Court also heard a Harry Potter case this month. Warner Bros took action to prevent the release of the film Hari Puttar – a Comedy of Terrors, which was created by Mumbai film studio Mirchi Movies. Warner Bros is arguing that this title is confusingly similar to the trade mark Harry Potter, while the makers of the Indian film are arguing that the word Puttar means son in Punjabi, Hari is a common name and that the plot of the film bears no resemblance to a Harry Potter film.