Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd.
United States Court case on copyright in fictional characters / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. was a 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (755 F.3d 496[1]), in response to an appeal filed by the defendants against the 2013 ruling of the U.S. District Court for Northern district of Illinois (988 F. Supp. 2d 879[2]). These decisions, by the District Court and the Court of the Seventh Circuit, clarified the validity (under copyright law) of the use of characters of Sherlock Holmes and his colleague Dr. John Watson, and the story elements, in unlicensed works. Further, the scope of using characters, in the public domain was also clarified.
The courts held that the characters of Holmes and Watson had entered the public domain along with the story elements of the works on which the copyright protection had expired, i.e., published prior to 1923; hence, they can be used in subsequent works without procuring a license. However, the copyright protection in works published in and after 1923, was still valid, and the unique expressions found in those works could still not be used without the permission of the Defendants until the works' copyrights expire.