Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Warner Bros. Entertainment and author J.K. Rowling asked a judge to block a Michigan company from publishing a dictionary of characters and creatures from the ``Harry Potter'' books.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, and Rowling sued RDR Books today in Manhattan federal court, saying the company plans to release a 400-page book entitled the ``Harry Potter Lexicon'' next month.

Warner Bros. and Rowling say in their complaint that RDR, of Muskegon, Michigan, refuses to honor their copyrights in the Potter books and films and that they ``have no choice but to file this lawsuit.''

RDR's ``widespread misappropriation of Ms. Rowling's fictional characters and universe'' includes ``list after list of spells and potions, imaginary places, fantastic creatures and invented games,'' the complaint says.

Rowling's seventh and final book about the boy wizard, ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' broke all publishing records by selling 8.3 million copies in the U.S. in its first 24 hours in July and 11.5 million copies in its first 10 days.

The latest movie in the series is ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' which stars British actor Daniel Radcliffe as the bespectacled teenager. The five Potter films produced so far have generated more than $4 billion to date, according to the complaint.

Rowling said in July that she plans to write an encyclopedia about the boy wizard and his magical world.

``We live in a country that has a free press, and we're going to publish it,'' said Roger Rapoport, owner of RDR, in an interview. RDR is a small publishing house that has been in business for 15 years, he said.

The case is Warner Brothers v. RDR Books, 07-cv-9667, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin at the federal court in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2007 17:07 EDT