Dan Brown wins copyright infringement case

LONDON: Britain's Court of Appeal rejected a suit from two authors who claimed novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code."

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, now face legal bills of about USD 6 million after losing their appeal against publisher Random House Inc.

Baigent and Leigh had argued that Brown stole significant elements from their book. Both books are based on a theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child, and that the bloodline continues to this day.

Their lawyers said Baigent and Leigh had 'expended a vast amount of skill and labour' in writing their book, first published in 1982.

"That skill and labour is protectable." Brown testified for several days during the High Court hearing last year.

The claimants' lawyer, Jonathan Rayner James, said that although the suit had been against the publisher rather than the author, Brown was really the one being put on trial for his work.