Critically acclaimed director James Cameron may not have walked off with an Oscar for “Avatar,” but he is walking away from a Chinese plagiarism lawsuit, only to be faced by another one in Canada.

A Chinese court dismissed a Chinese writer's suit, who alleged Mr. Cameron plagiarized 80% of his writing and turned it into the record box office movie, according to Chinese newspaper the Global Times. Officials at two courts in China reportedly refused to accept the breach of copyright case, while a Beijing court dismissed the lawsuit due to lack of evidence.

Zhou Shaomou filed the suit against Mr. Cameron, alleging the plot of “Avatar” was stolen from his “The Legend of the Blue Crow,” a 1.2 million-word science fiction novel he wrote in 1997 and published on two Chinese Web sites in 1999.

According to reports, Mr. Zhou wanted 8% of the revenue from “Avatar.”

“"Avatar' is a film based on my fiction, but shot by James Cameron,” Mr. Zhou told the Beijing News, “but he never paid me any copyright fees.”

A spokesperson for the Greater China office of 20th Century Fox Film Corp., “Avatar's” distributor, told Chinese reporters that the plot for “Avatar” was created two years before Mr. Zhou wrote his book.

Meanwhile, Vancouver, British Columbia, restaurant owner Emil Malak filed his own copyright infringement lawsuit against Mr. Cameron, alleging that the plot and characters in his 1996 story “Terra Incognita” are similar to the movie, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.