J K Rowling does not have an injunction against eBay

Two days ago news broke that J K Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) had won an injunction against eBay India. Now it appears the initial reports were incorrect and eBay has released a statement.

eBay India strongly refutes the false claims of JK Rowling representatives in the media about a purported injunction by the Delhi High Court against eBay India (formerly Baazee.com).

In fact, in November 2004, the Delhi High Court DENIED Rowling’s request for an injunction against eBay and found that eBay had fulfilled all of its legal obligations by removing all the offending listings of Harry Potter ebooks by 4 Baazee.com sellers.

For the last two years, the case has been proceeding normally through the Indian legal system and is at the stage of ‘framing the issues’ (pretrial). The new development in January 2007 is that the Delhi High Court affirmed the 2004 injunction against the 4 offending sellers who had been selling ebooks. This has no impact on eBay itself.

Although it is uncertain that a legal ruling in India would have any validity in the US or Europe, it’s certainly good news for eBay. It appears Rowling’s lawyers may have been a little over enthusiastic in their comments to the press.