Appeals court throws out 'Code' copyright lawsuit

Britain's Court of Appeal rejected a lawsuit Wednesday from two authors who claimed novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code."

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had sued Brown's publisher, Random House Inc., claiming he had copied from their 1982 nonfiction book, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."

Both books deal with the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child, and that the bloodline continues.

One of the judges said copyright protects an author's labor in researching and writing a book but doesn't extend to facts, theories and themes.