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A claim first made in 2004 has resurfaced against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. claiming the two stole story ideas from an author who died penniless in the late 1990s.

The estate of Adrian Jacobs claimed key portions of Rowling's 2000 book "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was turned into a feature film in 2005, from his little-circulated novella "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land," that Jacobs wrote in 1987.

Bloomsbury denied the allegations to Reuters, calling the claims "unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue."

Jacobs' estate said it filed a suit in London's High Court alleging copyright infringement. The main part of the story in question revolves around the wizarding contest Harry takes part in called the Triwizard Tournament, including one portion of the competition where Harry has to save a friend from Black Lake.

"Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest, which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures," the estate said in a statement.

Bloomsbury, however, said Rowling had never heard of Jacobs before his family first tried to make the copyright infringement claims in 2004, and had never read "Willy the Wizard," calling it a "very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution."

While the Jacobs estate claims to also have wizards riding trains, that's about where the similarities end.

"The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school," Bloomsbury said in its statement.

Over the years, there have been a number of plagiarism claims made against Rowling, something to be expected of a book series that has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Typically, however, it was Rowling fighting off efforts to plagiarize her work, and not usually the other way around.

One case where Rowling was a defendant came with Nancy Stouffer in 1999, according to Wikipedia, claiming Rowling had used material from her books, "The Legend of Rah and the Muggles" and "Larry Potter and his Best Friend Lilly." However, her claims would eventually be bumped from the court after a judge accused her of submitting fraudulent documents and dishonest testimony.

Rowling's 2005 book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," will be released as a feature film July 17.