British author J.K. Rowling has won her legal battle against die-hard Harry Potter fan, Steven Vander Ark, stopping him from publishing his "Harry Potter Lexicon," a 400-page book based on Rowling's famous fantasy saga about boy wizard Harry Potter.

Ruling in favor of author JK Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment in a copyright violations lawsuit brought against RDR Books, New York court judge Robert Patterson said Monday that the release of Vander Ark's forthcoming encyclopedia "Harry Potter Lexicon" would cause Rowling irreparable harm as a writer. RDR Books was named as the prospective publisher of Vander Ark’s book.

Judge Patterson also awarded Rowling and Warner Brothers $6,750 in damages.

Vander Ark, who runs the popular Harry Potter Lexicon Web site, wrote the book in roughly one month, organizing his material, based on Rowling's bestselling novels like an encyclopedia, including things like lists of characters, creatures, places and spells from the novels.

Rowling, 43, filed her lawsuit last year in Michigan in order to stall the release of Vander Ark's book. RDR Books maintained that the book was just like any other novel reference guide and there should not be any hindrance for it to be published.

In a statement issued after the ruling was given, Rowling, who initially supported the Lexicon website, said her legal action had aimed "to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work". While she had nothing against fans publishing material online and for free, it was completely different having someone releasing it in the form of a book.

"Many books have been published which offer original insights into the world of Harry Potter. The Lexicon just is not one of them," her statement added.

During a trial before Judge Patterson in April, Vander Ark broke down during questioning, saying he felt as though he had become an outcast in the "Harry Potter community."

"It’s been difficult because there’s been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention," he said.

Rowling got equally emotional as she explained the book is nothing more than a rearrangement of her own material and told the judge it copied so much of her work that it amounted to plagiarism.

"I think it's atrocious. I think it's sloppy. I think there's very little research," she testified in April. "This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work."

While the defense team for RDR Books didn't contest that Vander Ark's book infringes upon the Harry Potter books, they argued that it was a fair use allowable for reference books. The judge rejected their claims saying that even though the material was generally useful to the public, in this case, Vander Ark had gone too far. He added that he ruled in Rowling’s favor because the "Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purposes as a reference guide."