Is Sherlock Holmes protected by copyright?

Leslie Klinger is the co-author of a forthcoming book, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes. The book includes a reference to Langdale Pike, a character introduced in a short story published in 1926. Out of fear of litigation, Pegasus Books refused to finalize its publishing contract with Klinger and her co-author. Klinger sued the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in an Illinois district court, asking for a declaratory judgment that Sherlock Holmes is no longer protected by copyright.

Three weeks ago, the judge ruled that the Sherlock Holmes canon is copyrighted–but only for everything that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about him that was released in the United States after 1923. The Conan Doyle Estate gets to hold on to the last few works that Conan Doyle wrote about Holmes until the copyright expires in 2023.

This is kind of a bizarre situation unique to works released in series. Generally, an entire work is fixed into writing in one fell swoop. But here, copyright expires in phases as bits and pieces of the work age.

Remember this for your Harry Potter novel in a hundred years.

For more:

Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Judge Ruben Castillo, US District Court Northern District Of Illinois, Eastern Division, 1:13-cv-01226,  Docket Entry #40 – Order on Motion for Summary Judgment, Granting In Part (as to the pre-1923 story elements) and Denying in Part (as to the post-1923 story elements) (filed December 23, 2013) (on Scribd) (also on AmazonAWS).

United States Copyright Office – Circular 15A

Michael Hiltzik, LA Times, Sherlock Holmes rescued from a dastardly foe: the copyright law (Jan. 8, 2014).

NPR, Sherlock’s Expiring Copyright: It’s Public Domain, Dear Watson (Jan. 7, 2014).


Image courtesy Shining Darkness.