Defeated Da Vinci Code historians plan appeal

LONDON - Two historians - including a New Zealander - who lost a plagiarism case over bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code plan to appeal against the verdict, court officials said yesterday.

The officials said the appeal could take place later this year, but no specific date has been set. The Bookseller reported the appeal was due to be heard in early 2007.

British publisher Random House, which won the copyright case earlier this year at the High Court in London, expressed disappointment at the decision by New Zealander Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh to appeal.

"We have the utmost respect for the British legal system and acknowledge Baigent and Leigh's right to appeal the ruling in the DVC case," a Random House spokesman said.

"We regret, however, that more time and money is being spent trying to establish a case that was so comprehensively defeated in the High Court," he added.

Baigent and Leigh's lawyer in the original case, Paul Sutton, could not be reached for immediate comment.

A judge ruled in April that the central themes which the historians said author Dan Brown had copied from their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail were "too general" to be protected by copyright law even if they had been reproduced.

Brown, who testified during the month-long trial, had expressed astonishment that Baigent and Leigh filed the suit in the first place.

The historians faced a legal bill of more than 1 million pounds ($3 million) after losing the case. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and been turned into a Hollywood hit starring Tom Hanks.

- REUTERS