A case of identifiable copyright

The game is afoot!

It's been a while since I've written about copyright law, but now there's a case sure to interest. Last week the Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Netflix over their upcoming film "Enola Holmes."

The movie, adapted from Nancy Springer's "Enola Holmes Mysteries" series of novels, centers around Sherlock Holmes' much younger sister as she enters the world of sleuthing under the care of her renowned brother.

The film, starring Millie Bobbie Brown and Henry Cavill, has had a difficult time getting a distributor due to the global pandemic, but Netflix announced last month that they would be releasing it on their streaming service.

One month later, the Conan Doyle Estate filed their suit.

But wait! I know what you're thinking.

"Isn't Sherlock Holmes already in the public domain?"

Yes and no.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 Sherlock Holmes stories across four novels and numerous short story collections. Out of that library of work, 50 of those stories, from "A Study in Scarlet" to "The Problem of Thor Bridge," have fallen into the public domain. This means that anybody can adapt those stories however they want without paying for any kind of license.

However, the last ten Sherlock Holmes stories that Conan Doyle wrote still remain under copyright. The plots, characters, and all other unique traits to those stories still belong exclusively to the Conan Doyle estate.

And here's where it gets complicated.

According to the Conan Doyle estate, these last Sherlock Holmes stories, written in the wake of World War I, marked a tangible change in how Conan Doyle wrote the character. Rather than the stoic genius with little use for emotional attachment, the last years of Sherlock Holmes saw him warm up and embrace more humanistic characteristics.

It is based on these characteristics that the Conan Doyle estate claims the Enola Holmes Mysteries have infringed on their copyright.

"Springer places Enola Holmes at the center of the novels and has Holmes initially treat her coolly, then change to respond to her with warmth and kindness," as it says in the lawsuit. "In his copyrighted 1924 story "The Three Garridebs," Conan Doyle created this new emotion and friendship in Sherlock Holmes."

That's right. The Conan Doyle estate is asserting that the concept of friendship, as far as Sherlock Holmes is concerned, did not exist until 1924. That while the public at large can use Sherlock Holmes as a character, they are the exclusive rights holders to Sherlock Holmes having emotions.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but I think the Conan Doyle Estate has an uphill battle with this one. One would think that simply scouring through the Sherlock Holmes stories in the public domain for any trace of human emotion would be enough to torpedo this arguments.

If a Sherlock Holmes adaptation were to bring in a specific character, location, or plot that was unique to one of the ten remaining stories under copyright, that would be one thing. Trying to claim that character growth is copyrightable however is another thing entirely. Softening in old age is a trope that can be found across fiction. It's often the natural conclusion to a character arc.

It's hard to imagine that this case will go anywhere, but you never know. In either event, the copyright for the final bunch of stories should only last for a couple more years. Thus, closing these cases once and for all.

Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and "The game is afoot" was only said by Holmes once in a story now in the public domain.