'Potter' Publisher Denies Plagiarism.

The British publisher Bloomsbury denied on Monday that J. K. Rowling copied substantial parts of another children's book to write ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' Reuters reported. The estate of Adrian Jacobs, an author who died in 1997, has said it seeks a trial in the London High Court against Bloomsbury for copyright infringement. The estate said that Ms. Rowling's 2000 novel, the fourth entry in her wildly popular Harry Potter series, was plagiarized from Jacobs's 1987 book, ''The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land.'' In a statement, the estate cited plot similarities between the books and said that Jacobs had sought the services of Christopher Little, who became Ms. Rowling's literary agent. In a statement, Bloomsbury said that Ms. Rowling had not heard of the other book until 2004, when Jacobs's son made a similar claim. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]