TORONTO — A Winnipeg folk group's attempt to block the release of the upcoming Harry Potter movie in Canada was crushed because the public wouldn't confuse three characters from the film with the real-life band, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

The Wyrd Sisters tried to stop the theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, slated for Nov. 18, arguing that a fictional rock band in the film would ruin their careers.

They were seeking $40 million in damages from Warner Bros.

Although there is no mention of a Wyrd Sisters band in the film, the J.K. Rowling novel on which it is based refers to a group of hairy witches dubbed The Weird Sisters.

"I am not satisfied that the fact of three musicians appearing in the film will operate as a deception to the public such as to affect the goodwill that the plaintiffs may have in the term, 'The Wyrd Sister,'" Justice Colin Campbell said.

"Neither am I satisfied that the six-second inclusion of the scene in question will cause irreparable harm."

Formed in 1990, the Wyrd Sisters argued Friday that the Harry Potter franchise, which changed the spelling of the ghoulish characters to Wyrd for some of its merchandise, is ruining their reputation.

They said the public would confuse the folk act with the band created for the Potter film, which includes members of Radiohead and Pulp.

The case has sparked a flurry of online activity among Potter and Radiohead fans. Many of them have dubbed the lawsuit, fronted by Wyrd Sisters singer Kim Baryluk, a headline-grabbing stunt.

Baryluk refuted such claims.

"Hate mail and death threats is not good publicity for me. I think my career is over," she said earlier in the day.

"I'm going to go to a new town where I haven't played before and I'm going to get a bunch of people there expecting Radiohead and they're going to see a bunch of middle-aged folk people on stage. They're going to be angry ... I will look like the middle-aged folk lady who used Harry Potter to claim fame."

While she wasn't counting on winning the injunction to stop the film from opening in theatres, she'd hoped to shine light on what she called a great "injustice."

"This was the quickest, fastest, easiest way we could stand up and say 'This is wrong,'" she said.

"I have a right to conduct my business ... and be free to wander about the country doing my business without fear that someone's going to come in and kick me out of the way, which is what's happened."

Baryluk said she would have been satisfied if Warner Bros. added a line in the credits of the movie saying: "the real Wyrd Sisters live in Canada."

Warner Bros. had argued it wasn't infringing on trademark or copyright in the first place because the folk band's name doesn't appear in the film, nor will it be used on the film's soundtrack.

"The name does not appear in the movie," Jonathan Stainsby, a lawyer for Warner Bros., said outside the courthouse, adding the Wyrd Sisters should pursue legal action against Rowling since she wrote the novels.

"This is not the creation of a band that's going to go out and play in public. This is the images on celluloid for six seconds portraying a fictional character. It has nothing to do with folk bands playing music in Winnipeg or anywhere else."