“It’s elementary my dear Watson, Sherlock Holmes might still have copyright protection.” Not precisely the definitive answer one expects from Sherlock’s reasoning of all things – even the intricacies of copyright law.
The recent lawsuit filed against the estate of Sir Author Conan Doyle might bring out heirs of other great works created in the late 1800′s and early 20th century to see just how long copyright protection can be stretched.
The character of Sherlock Holmes first appeared in publication in 1887 and was featured in four novels and 56 short stories spanning until 1927. According to US Copyright Law, the works written and published prior to 1923 are in the public domain. That means the characters, story lines and plots are free for use. The Estate asserts the works between 1923 and 1927 are infringed by the book In the Company of Sherlock Holmes scheduled for publication by Random House. In order to head-off an infringement suit, author/editor Leslie Klinger filed a declaratory judgment action asking the Judge to find the copyright on certain works featuring Sherlock Holmes and certain elements of the stories has expired.
The Complaint filed does a great job laying out the facts regarding when certain elements were first used in the Sherlock Holmes stories and why those elements are in the public domain.
Read more from the The Hollywood Reporter ESQ blog and TechDirt.
Also visit the Conan Doyle Estate website to see which Sherlock Holmes projects have been “licensed” or “authorized.”
On another interesting note, the Conan Doyle Estate Limited has been busy filing trademark applications for the brand SHERLOCK HOLMES. In 2010 the estate filed six intent to use trademark application featuring the name SHERLOCK HOLMES. Based on US Patent and Trademark office filings, none of these trademarks are currently in use by the Estate. The image above of Holmes with the Pipe is a registered trademark of the The Sherlock Holmes Memorabilia Company. According to the Conan Doyle Estate Website, the Estate is pursuing cancellation of this trademark registration.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:29 am
Hi, I’m slightly confused by this issue. To my understanding, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright terms to life of the author plus 70 years or 95 years after publication, whichever is earliest, and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever ended earlier. In that case, copyright on all Sherlock Holmes works expired on 2000, since Sir Arthur Doyle died on 1930 and the concept of corporate authorship cannot be applied.
However, before writing you, I researched a bit and found that the same Act extended copyright protection for works published prior to January 1, 1978, to 95 years from their publication date. In that case, any and all works published from 1918 onwards are protected, right?
In any case, I don’t quite understand the relevance of US Copyright Law, since Sir Arthur published his works in England.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could clarify this for me!
March 26th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Hi Caro: Great questions. Even though the works were originally published in England, they still receive copyright protection in other countries. The protection in the US, is based solely on US law. The short answer is with implementation of the Copyright Term Extension Act it was determined that works published prior to 1923 are in the public domain. “Because of legislation passed in 1998, no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019, when works published in 1923 will expire. In 2020, works published in 1924 will expire, and so on.”
For more info follow the link: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/8-a.html
March 26th, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Thanks for answering!
March 29th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
[...] Create Protect: http://ipandentertainmentlaw.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/sherlock-holmes-elementary-copyright-protecti… [...]
March 29th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
[...] Create Protect: http://ipandentertainmentlaw.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/sherlock-holmes-elementary-copyright-protecti… [...]