The Mystery Of The Copyright On Sherlock Holmes' Emotions Goes Unsolved Due To Settlement

Copyright

from the unsolved-mysteries dept

Since this past summer we have been writing about a bonkers lawsuit brought against the makers of a Netflix movie, Enola Holmes, by the Conan Doyle Estate. The stories of Sherlock Holmes are, of course, largely in the public domain now, although roughly 10 tales still haven’t reached the expiration date of their copyright protection. The film does not tell any of those protected stories. Instead, it tells an original story, focused on Holmes’ sister, Enola. To make its copyright claim, the Estate instead suggests that Enola Holmes shows a Sherlock who has feelings and empathy, among other details, and therefore runs afoul of the character copyright as Sherlock didn’t show such features until those still-protected stories were written. Also, something about Sherlock developing a liking towards dogs. Yes, seriously.

Well, Netflix moved to have the case dismissed, going in quite hard on the details of the Estate’s claims. For starters, in Enola Holmes, um, no dogs. Added to that, the motion provides ample evidence of Sherlock having feelings and empathy prior to the protected works and that such ideas are not protectable anyway. The rest of us, meanwhile, waited patiently to see if the mystery of whether or not you could break copyright in this way could actually succeed in court.

Sadly, we’ll never know, as reportedly Netflix and the Estate have reached a settlement.

Is a more emotional Sherlock Holmes protected by copyright? Although that’s dubious, the mystery remains technically unsolved as Netflix, Legendary Pictures, and others associated with Enola Holmes have come to a settlement with the Conan Doyle Estate. On Friday, the parties stipulated to dismissal of a lawsuit in New Mexico federal court.

In response [to the suit], the producers blasted the suit as an “attempt to create a perpetual copyright,” arguing in a motion to dismiss that generic concepts like warmth and kindness don’t fall under protection.

The Conan Doyle Estate never took the chance to respond. Undoubtedly, its negotiating leverage would be stronger having defeated a dismissal motion, but the heirs to the author surely have their reasons for taking whatever they could in settlement.

As per usual, the details of the settlement were not released publicly. And while I’m sure readers here are sick and tired of hearing me complain about such opaque settlements, it is immensely frustrating when we get questions about protectable copyright elements where it would be nice to have some clear court rulings to not get any. Given what the Estate was up against based on the merits of its attempt to create perpetual copyright, it’s hard to imagine it made out particularly well in the settlement, but for now all we can do is guess.

Filed Under: copyright, derivative works, enola holmes, sherlock holmes
Companies: conan doyle estate, netflix