MOSCOW, October 20 (RAPSI) – Eksmo Publishing House has filed an appeal against a recent court ruling to dismiss its copyright infringement suit over Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James and five other bestselling books, RAPSI learnt in a St. Petersburg commercial court on Monday.

The Moscow-based publishing company, which claims to control about 20% of the Russian book market, is seeking 700,000 rubles (over $17,000) in damages from VKontakte, the largest Russian social networking website.

The publishing company told RIA Novosti that copyright violation warnings were sent to the administration of VKontakte, but were ultimately ignored.

Georgy Lobushkin, representative of VKontakte, objected, said that complaints filed by the Aassociation of copyright protection on the internet (AZAPI), acting on behalf of the publishing company, were complied with fully. Lobushkin claimed procedural violations that could cast doubt on the validity of certain claims brought by Eksmo.

The suit was dismissed on September 15. The court held that Eksmo Publishing House failed to provide evidence that it had secured the right for distribution of the books subject to the lawsuit on the internet.