Nashville lawyer takes on DaVinci’s Random House
Nashville attorney Kline Preston says the Kline Preston Law Group has been retained by Russian author and art historian Mikhail Anikin to sue Random House Inc. and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown for violating Anikin’s rights.
Preston, 40, told Nashville Attorney he plans to file the suit in U.S. District Court for MiddleKline Preston Tennessee this month. Preston said Dec. 7 that the filing will invoke protections of author’s rights under Russian law, as well as protections afforded by copyright laws and by the Berne Convention Protecting Literary and Artistic Works.
Anikin contends his 2000 work, Leonardo Da Vinci or Theology on Canvas (also translated, Leonardo da Vinci: Theology In Paint), not only explicitly referred to the central mystery as the “Da Vinci Code,” but also laid out the premise that Da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa (La Giaconda) melded images of both Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and represented an allegory of the Christian church.
Anikin asserts that in 1998 he described his theory to both his Russian colleagues and to Americans visiting at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Anikin says that with his consent those with whom he spoke passed the theory along to one or more authors, with the understanding Anikin would be given credit for his analysis by anyone using it. Preston confirmed this account.
Preston and St. Petersburg-based partner Chris Mitchell established Mitchell & Preston attorneys in St. Petersburg; Mitchell is of-counsel to Preston’s Nashville firm.
Both men have prior experience in international and domestic business law, and a portion of Preston’s practice involves assisting in Americans’ adoptions of children born in the Ukraine and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. Preston and Mitchell also represented the original manager of Bering Strait, the classically trained Russian bluegrass band, in a contract dispute with band members. The group is now Nashville based
Preston earned his bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature at the University of Tennessee in 1989, and earned his law degree at Nashville School of Law in 1994. He also studied in Leningrad via an Indiana University program at Leningrad State University
With more than 60 million copies in print, Code has been the focus of much litigation: Two years ago here in Nashville, Random House first objected, but then soon relented in a complaint about Nashville-based Thomas Nelson Inc.’s use of the title Breaking the DaVinci Code, by author Darrell Bock
Just a month ago in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Random House and author Lewis Perdue battled over Perdue’s claims that Brown had infringed on Perdue’s “Daughter of God” (Doherty, 2000). The federal court rejected the argument and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. Also, earlier this year two of Random House’s own authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who created the 1982 nonfiction book “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,” sued Random House in London’s High Court, alleging parts of their work formed the basis of Brown’s novel. The court rejected their claims of copyright infringement.
From http://www.nashvillepost.com/