[griffonwing]

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lincoln

Dan Brown lawsuit

Some of the ideas presented in Baigent's earlier book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, were incorporated in the bestselling American novel The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.[2]

In March 2006, Baigent and Leigh filed a lawsuit in a British court against Brown's publisher, Random House, claiming copyright infringement. [3] In April 7, High Court judge Peter Smith rejected the copyright-infringement claim, and Dan Brown won the court case.

Lincoln was not involved in the proceedings, reputedly because of illness; however, in the Channel Five documentary, Revealed... The Man behind the Da Vinci Code, [4] Lincoln stated that he did not wish to take part in the proceedings because the ideas brought forth in Holy Blood were not even original themselves, and Brown's actions could only be described as, "a bit naughty." An earlier novel had already used the theme of a Jesus bloodline: The Dreamer of the Vine, by Liz Greene, published in 1980 [5] (Richard Leigh's sister and Michael Baigent's girlfriend at that time); Liz Greene was not sued for plagiarism.