A lawsuit being brought against bestselling novelist James Patterson by an ex-girlfriend for breach of contract and copyright infringement—and for stealing her ideas—has been allowed to proceed, according to a report on NewYorkLawyer.com by Mark Fass. Judge Gerard E. Lynch denied Patterson’s motion to dismiss the charges that Patterson’s Cat and Mouse “allegedly incormporates Ms. Sharp’s work” and his Suzanne’s Diary for Nichoals was “allegedly based on her idea.” As the judge described it, “In tandem with their romantic relationship, Sharp alleges, the two ‘developed a close professional relationship,’ in which Patterson discussed problems with his writing, and Sharp helped by acting ‘as a sounding board and [making] suggestions.'”