LAWYERS representing the estate of Lord of the Rings creator JRR Tolkien have taken action against the developer of a cryptocurrency named “JRR Token”.

Representatives of the Tolkien estate said the product, which was launched in August 2021, infringed the trademark of the world-famous author.

The domain name “jrrtoken.com” was successfully recovered without opposition by the estate and all operations under the offending name were halted.

The US-based developer paid the estate’s legal costs for an undisclosed sum.

Steven Maier, solicitor for the Tolkien estate, said: “The Tolkien estate is vigilant in preventing unauthorised parties from taking advantage of the JRR Tolkien name and the content of JRR Tolkien’s literary works.

“This was a particularly flagrant case of infringement and the estate is pleased that it has been concluded on satisfactory terms.”

JRR Tolkien’s internationally-recognised literary works, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have been translated into 36 languages and have sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide.

Several locations within the author's work were inspired by his time walking across the Malvern Hills.

Tolkien was a frequent visitor with his good friend CS Lewis in the 1930s, often arriving on the early train from Oxford before spending the day walking the mist-shrouded hills of The Malverns.

Such excursions are widely thought to have given birth to the Ered Nimrais mountain range of Middle Earth, or as they're widely known, the White Mountains.

During one visit to Malvern, Tolkien confided in Malvern College schoolmaster George Sayer about the difficulty he had faced in getting Lord of the Rings published.

Sayer successfully convinced him to not throw the manuscript into the fire, restoring his confidence in the work's potential.

According to a report in the Malvern Gazette: "At night, to entertain him, Mr Sayer brought out a tape recorder, for Tolkien had never seen one before.

"He was fascinated and asked if he might record some of the poems in The Lord of the Rings to find out how they sound to other people.

"He recorded several long passages and, when he heard them played back, his confidence in the work returned."

Mr Sayer also did Tolkien another favour by recommending that he approach the publisher Rayner Unwin.

Unwin took the book and by the time Tolkien died in 1973, it had sold three million copies.