Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on Monday denied allegations that author J.K. Rowling copied "substantial parts" of a book by another children's author when she wrote "Harry¹ Potter and the Goblet² of Fire."

The book, published in 2000, was the fourth installment³ of the hugely successful boy wizard Harry Potter series that has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and been turned into a multi-billion-dollar film franchise⁴.

"The allegations of plagiarism⁵ made today, Monday 15 June 2009, by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs are unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue," said a statement from Bloomsbury, which publishes Harry Potter in Britain.

"This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously."

In an earlier statement, Jacobs' estate said that it had issued proceedings⁶ at London's High Court against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for copyright infringement⁷.

It named the estate's trustee as Paul Allen, and said that Rowling had copied "substantial parts" of "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land" written by Jacobs in 1987.

It added that the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied elements of the plot of Willy the Wizard, including a wizard contest, and that the Potter series borrowed the idea of wizards traveling on trains.

"It is alleged⁸ that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before J.K. Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published,” the estate statement said.

In its response, Bloomsbury said Rowling "had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicized Harry Potter series.

"Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution. The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve⁹ around a wizard school."

"The claim was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard."

布卢姆斯伯里出版公司于本周一否认作家J.K.罗琳涉嫌抄袭一事，之前罗琳被指控在撰写《哈利·波特与火焰杯》时，“大量”抄袭了另一位儿童作家的作品。

该书于2000年出版，魔法男童“哈利·波特”系列的第4部，该系列书籍销量火爆，已在全球热销超过4亿册，所改编的电影票房收入达数十亿美元。

“哈利·波特”系列书籍英国出版商布卢姆斯伯里公司在一份声明中说：“阿德里安•雅各布的出版商在今天，也就是2009年6月15日（周一）所作的抄袭指控毫无理由，毫无证据，是虚假的。”

“这种指控没有任何依据，我们将坚决反对。”

雅各布的出版商在之前的一份声明中称，他们已向伦敦高级法院起诉布卢姆斯伯里出版公司侵犯版权。

该出版商委托保罗•艾伦代理此案，称罗琳“大量”抄袭了雅各布于1987年所写的《魔法师威利奇遇记第一部---青紫世界》。

该出版商还说，《哈利·波特与火焰杯》的情节抄袭了《魔法师威利》中的魔法师竞赛等元素，“哈利·波特”系列还借鉴了魔法师乘火车旅行的创意。

声明写道：“我们认为，所有这些构思都是阿德里安•雅各布在《魔法师威利》中首次提到的，比J.K.罗琳首次出版哈利·波特系列大约早10年，比《哈利·波特与火焰杯》早13年。

布卢姆斯伯里公司回应称，2004年，罗琳首次被指控抄袭，而在那之前她从未听说或者见过阿德里安•雅各布，也没有读过或者听说《魔法师威利》一书，当时广为人知的“哈利·波特”系列首部书籍已经出版7年了。

“《魔法师威利》是一本仅有36页的小册子，内容十分空洞，发行量也很小。主人公魔法师威利并不年轻，也没有以魔法学校为主要内容。”

“他们根本无法指出哈利·波特系列书籍的哪一部份抄袭了《魔法师威利》。”

 Vocabulary:

revolve around：以……为主要内容