"Da Vinci Code" case ends, ruling by early April

LONDON (Reuters) - The copyright case brought by two historians who accuse Dan Brown of plagiarizing their work in "The Da Vinci Code" ended on Monday, and the presiding judge said he hoped to give a ruling by early April. Lasting more than three weeks, the closely watched hearings featured a tetchy Brown in the witness box, debate about the Merovingian monarchy, the Knights Templar and Jesus' bloodline, and revelations about the media-shy author and his wife Blythe. The Da Vinci Code, one of the most successful novels of all time with sales of over 40 million copies, uses some of the same ideas as "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," a 1982 work of historical conjecture by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. [More]