New York, June 19: Author J.K. Rowling has sued the Daily News for $100 million after the newspaper obtained an early copy of her new harry potter novel and published a preview, the book's U.S. publisher said. The news published details of ``Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix'' after buying a copy from a health food store in New York city that had mistakenly put the book out for sale before its Saturday release.
The suit, prepared by lawyers for Rowling and Scholastic Inc., claims the newspaper damaged Rowling's intellectual property rights and harmed scholastic's $3 million worldwide marketing campaign.
The book - the fifth installment of the adventures of the boy wizard has been under extraordinary security ahead of the release. In a statement, scholastic said it hoped ``this unfortunate situation will not spoil the surprise for millions of children around the country who have been eagerly awaiting the book.''
Scholastic provided a copy of the suit to the associated press and said it had been filed late yesterday in Manhattan federal court. There was no way to verify the claim yesterday evening.
``We will vigorously defend any action and are confident we did nothing wrong journalistically or legally,'' Daily News spokesman Ken Frydman said.
The news story contained what it called a ``brief glimpse into the 870 action-packed pages'' of ``Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.''

Bureau Report