'Da Vinci' Trial: Great For Business

Copyright Suit Helping Sales Of Two Books, 'Da Vinci' Tours In London

(CBS/AP)  However, he acknowledged that he could not always recall exact dates of milestones in the creation of his novel. Both books explore theories — dismissed by theologians — that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute but Jesus' wife, the couple had a child and the bloodline survives.

"It's as if you've asked me to go back five years or 10 years and asked me not only what I got for Christmas, but what order I opened the presents," he told Jonathan Rayner James, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

If Baigent and Leigh succeed in securing an injunction to bar the use of their material, they could hold up the scheduled May 19 film release of "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou.

Random House lawyers argue the ideas in dispute are so general, copyrights don't protect them.

Copyright attorney David Hooper tended to agree, telling correspondent MacVicar, "When one thinks of people like Shakespeare, they were always using other people's material that they were developing it, they were developing ideas and themes that's what literature is all about."

In his 69-page witness statement released Monday, Brown acknowledged reading Baigent and Leigh's book while he was writing "The Da Vinci Code" — along with 38 other books and more than 300 documents submitted as evidence to the court.

He said Baigent and Leigh's work "was not a crucial or important text in the creation of the framework of 'The Da Vinci Code.'

Brown also said he had fully acknowledged his debt to the two authors by having a character in "The Da Vinci Code" refer to the earlier book. He even named a character Sir Leigh Teabing — an anagram of Baigent and Leigh.

The third author of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," Henry Lincoln, is not involved in the case. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Paul Sutton, refused to say why he was not participating. Lincoln, who is in his 70s and reportedly in poor health, could not be reached for comment.