Court tosses out Rowling’s lawsuit

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, lost a privacy lawsuit Tuesday over the rights of a photo agency to use a picture of her son.

London High Court Justice Nicholas Patten dismissed a suit filed in the name of the author’s 3-year-old son, saying the legal action had “no reasonable or realistic chance of success.”

Rowling, 42, and her husband, Neil Murray, had sued photo agency Big Pictures U.K. Ltd. A photographer connected with the agency covertly took a snapshot of the couple and their son on a street in Edinburgh in November 2004.

Rowling said she planned to appeal the judgment.