Authors’ appeal threatens to re-ignite Da Vinci Code row

LAWYERS for two authors who claim novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code urged Britain’s Court of Appeal yesterday to overturn Brown’s victory in the copyright infringement case.

Lawyers for Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who face a legal bill of over £1.1 million (€1.8m) if the verdict stands, said the lower court ruling “was based on a misunderstanding of the law and of the claim”.

Baigent and Leigh contend Brown stole significant parts of their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail to use in his novel. 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.