Suit Over Sherlock Holmes Copyright

Scholar Leslie S. Klinger filed a civil suit in a U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. He filed the suit against the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to challenge whether the characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson are still protected by copyright law.Klinger was editing a work by Laurie R. King that contained stories that were inspired by Doyle’s masterpiece. Currently, he is also working on a collection of stories called, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes with a different author.

All of this started with Doyle’s estate contacted his publisher to notify him that because he had not paid the proper licensing fee the estate would convince major distributors to not sell the book. Klinger stated that he acknowledged that some of the Sherlock Holmes stories were still under copyright protection, however, he claims that most of stories are not protected. Klinger claims that as many as 50 stories about the detective and his partner are already in the public domain. Provided here are copies of the court filings.

See Jason Boog, Scholar Sues Arthur Conan Doyle Estate Over Sherlock Holmes Copyright, Galley Cat, Feb. 15, 2013.