Billionaire Jeff Bezos Demands His Legal Fees Be Paid in Writer's ‘Frivolous’ $250 Million Lawsuit Over 'Lord of The Rings'

Polychron claimed the show ripped off a book he wrote The Fellowship of the King — which was inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s books. Polychron claimed he had left a copy of his manuscript at Tolkien’s grandson’s home in 2019 after unsuccessful attempts to contact the estate.

His suit claimed, “These wholly original distinct and separate characters and storylines compose as much as one-half of the 8-episode series as released and published by Defendants. In many cases, Defendants copied exact language” from his book.

“In other instances, Defendants copied images that match the book cover and descriptions as created in the book as authored by Polychron,” the suit read.

Now, Bezos and Amazon said, “The law does not support the absurdity of this lawsuit.”

The defendants said an “aspiring author wrote an unauthorized novel that he advertised as a “pitch-perfect” sequel to” Tolkien’s iconic book series, which “scrupulously followed” Tolkien’s “established mythology” and featured numerous characters, locations, and plot points copied from Tolkien works without permission. While this is a copyright infringement case, this aspiring author, Demetrious Polychron, is not the defendant, but rather the plaintiff, contending that the authorized Amazon original series, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, somehow infringed his infringing novel.”

Bezos argued Polychron’s book could not exist without Tolkein’s work and therefore “it is not subject to copyright protection as a matter of law.”

The billionaire said the entire case should be dismissed and his legal fees paid by the author.