Estate Of "Sherlock Holmes" Author Loses Case Seeking To Stop Others' Use Of Character

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a case in which a writer was granted permission to use the Holmes character in his stories.

By
Nicolás Medina Mora
by Nicolás Medina Mora

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Fan-fictioners, slash-fictioners, pulp-o-philes, rationalists, positivists, Victorians, colonials, imperials, Freudians, Londoners, cokeheads, and crime solvers of the world — rejoice!

Moment Editorial / Getty Images Alex Segre

Sherlock Holmes statue at Baker Street in London.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the original Holmes stories, asking it to keep the fictional character under copyright, Reuters reported.

AP Photo/File

This 1930 photo shows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.

The appeal was the last stage in a case pitting Conan Doyle's estate against Leslie Klinger, a writer who wanted to produce a new series of stories featuring Holmes. Conan Doyle's estate wanted Klinger to pay a fee for permission to use the character.

REUTERS STEFAN WERMUTH

Manuscript notes by author Arthur Conan Doyle from 1886 displayed at the Museum of London, October 16.

The 7th Circuit Court ruled in June that Holmes-the-character entered the public domain at the same time as the first story written about him.

REUTERS STEFAN WERMUTH

Timothy Long, the curator of the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die," poses with a deerstalker hat and a smoking pipe at the Museum of London on October 16.

Now that the Supreme Court has refused to hear the case, the 7th Circuit decision is final. That means that Klinger can use the character of Sherlock Holmes without paying anyone for permission.

REUTERS STEFAN WERMUTH

Conan Doyle's Estate could potentially bring similar cases against writers of fan fiction in other circuits. A previous version of this post implied that the fact that the Supreme Court declined to hear the Conan Doyle Estate's appeal meant that anyone can now legally write stories using the Sherlock Holmes character.

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