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London (dpa) - A three-week trial over claims that best-selling US-novelist Dan Brown copied the core ideas for his thriller "The Da Vinci Code" came to a close Monday but a judgement could take several weeks, the High Court in London said.
On the last day of the hearing, lawyers representing claimants Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh said evidence given in court by Brown should be viewed with "deep suspicion."
The American author, who is reported to have made in excess of 200 million pounds (350 million dollars) since his blockbuster novel was published three years ago, was heard as a witness in the trial last week.
In a statement, he rejected as "fanciful" charges that he copied the plot from the 1982 non-fiction work "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail", written by Baigent and Leigh.
Brown, 41, admitted he read the work but only after he had sent the synopsis for "The Da Vinci Code" off to his publishers, Random House, in January, 2001.
Random House, which has published both books, is being sued for breach of copyright by Baigent and Leigh, who are both historians.
They claim that Brown stole their hypothesis - dismissed by theologians - that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, the couple had a child and that the bloodline survives.
Jonathan Rayner James QC, representing Baigent and Leigh, told the court in his summing-up that the evidence given by Brown should be "approached with deep suspicion", and that the US-author had been "uncooperative."
If Baigent and Leigh succeed in securing an injunction to bar the use of their material, they could hold up the film release of "The Da Vinci Code" scheduled for May 19.
Presiding judge Peter Smith would reserve judgement, which would "hopefully" be given before Easter, the High Court said.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
