"Da Vinci Code" plagiarism appeal hearing winds up

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) An appeal by two historians who lost a plagiarism case against ''The Da Vinci Code'' author Dan Brown wound up today but a judgment is not expected for several weeks.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'', have been at London's High Court this week to try to prove that Brown copied their work when he wrote his religious bestseller.

Their lawyer, Jonathan Rayner James, argued that the original judge had been wrong to dismiss the idea of a ''central theme'' in the historians' research which he said was used extensively in six chapters of ''The Da Vinci Code''.

He said Brown's wife Blythe, who emerged during the original case last year as a key researcher and inspiration for the author, knew she was relying exclusively on the historians' book for the chapters.

John Baldwin, representing Brown's British publisher Random House, rejected the argument behind the appeal, saying: ''They seem to think that he (the judge) found that Mr Brown copied some 10 or 11 of the central theme points from HBHG (''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail''),'' he said.

''The appellants are wrong; the judge found that Mr Brown did not copy any central theme points from HBHG.'' Judge Peter Smith ruled in April that the central themes were too general or abstract to be protected by copyright, a decision that left the historians facing a legal bill of about 2 million dollars.

Brown said at the time that novelists must be allowed to draw from historical works without fear of being sued.

''The Da Vinci Code'' is one of the most successful novels of all time, selling more than 40 million copies worldwide, and has been turned into a Hollywood movie.

Both ''The Da Vinci Code'' and ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' raise the possibility that Mary Magdalene had a child by Jesus, that she fled to France after the Crucifixion and that Christ's bloodline survives to this day.

They also associate Mary Magdalene with the Holy Grail.

REUTERS MQA BST0208