Already with these details, it is clear that the plaintiff's acquaintances will recognize him as the "villain" in the book. And if there is any doubt in their hearts, all they have to do is read the interview that the defendant gave to the journalist, Vasislava, in the course of which he said exactly that:
"I visited once at the invitation of an Israeli who lived there by the name of Amit Steinhardt for a business visit to the city of Varna."
The defendant, in the same interview, did not claim any identity between the plaintiff and the villain, nor did he even claim the similarity or inspiration he received in creating the character of the villain in this context. The importance of the interview lies in the very mention of the plaintiff's name. The plaintiff's reasonable acquaintance, which has already been exposed to the description of the "villain", is now also exposed to the fact that the defendant, the writer, has a direct connection to the plaintiff. The remnants of the possible doubt have been removed.
- This is how an interim summary can be drawn.
A dispute arose between the parties regarding the possibility of identifying the plaintiff with the "villain" who stars in the story. The plaintiff claims that he can and can be identified as the same "villain" and the defendant claims that this character is taken entirely from the realms of imagination.
The decision in this dispute will be made by applying the "reasonable sale" test. A test in which the details of the information and description of the "villain" in the various publications will be presented to someone who knows the plaintiff, in order to see if that acquaintance will identify the plaintiff as the "villain".
The application of this test shows that the description of the "villain" in the book and in the variety of publications related to the book present him as having unique characteristics: a lecturer at an academy in Sofia, a specialist in intelligence research, a position holder in a company that deals with computer crime, an investor in a real estate business in Bulgaria, and also someone who suffers from overweight, underwent surgery to shorten the stomach, and even suffers from diabetes. These, with vigorous precision, are the characteristics of the plaintiff. Indeed, each individual is not unique in itself, but the combination of details is also unique. The plaintiff's "reasonable acquaintance" will easily identify him as the same character in the book, "The Villain", a character who, according to him, is a "non-fictional character".