Lawsuit delays fan's 'Potter' encyclopaedia

The owner of a Harry Potter fansite has been barred from releasing his own Potter encyclopaedia until further notice.

The Harry Potter Lexicon, which was written by Steve Vander Ark and is based on the website of the same name, was due to be published on November 28. However, Potter author JK Rowling is suing publisher Roger Rapoport, claiming that the encyclopaedia would violate her intellectual property rights.

Federal judge Robert Patterson has issued an order barring completion, distribution, marketing or advance sales of the book while the case continues.

Rowling has insisted that she takes "no pleasure" in trying to prevent the book from being published, adding: "On the contrary, I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all. Given my past good relations with the Lexicon fan site, I can only feel sad and disillusioned that this is where we have ended up."

Rapoport has sent a copy of the book to Warner Bros lawyers and hopes that they will decide that there has been no copyright infringement.

"I think they should drop it. I'm hopeful that they will," he explained. "We will continue to defend our author and the Lexicon in this David and Goliath battle with an eye toward protecting the rights of readers and writers everywhere."

Rowling has claimed that Steve Vander Ark's book would interfere with her own plans to release an encyclopaedia about the wizarding world.