Heres the latest on Klinger vrs The Doyle Estate. ITS OVER. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take a case (the petition for certiorari) brought by the ACD estate that challenged whether the character of Sherlock Holmes was in the public domain. The high courts non-action means Leslie Klinger does not have to pay license fees to the estate as long as they dont infringe on later new elements introduced in works published in the 1920s that still fall under copyright. The estate demanded and received $5,000 from Random House when it published Klingers anthology of modern Holmes stories. But when Klinger sought to do a follow-up, and the estate sought a license fee from Pegasus Books, the publisher apparently considered it a latent threat to sue and refused to publish the anthology. Klinger then sued. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Illinois again ruled in favor of Klinger, concluding that they could find no basis in statute or case law for extending a copyright beyond its expiration. Judge Richard Posner, in an opinion awarding Klinger almost $31,000 in attorneys fees, wrote that the Doyle estates business strategy is plain: charge a modest license fee for which there is no legal basis, in the hope that the rational writer or publisher asked for the fee will pay it rather than incur a greater cost, in legal expenses, in challenging the legality of the demand. He added, Its time the estate, in its own self interest, changed its business model. The estate had argued that the depiction of Holmes and other characters in works still under copyright were more rounded than those in the public domain, meaning they could still claim protection for the character in new works. But the appellate court rejected that argument. The estate has given its stamp of approval to Sherlock on PBS and Elementary on CBS, but its unclear what the status will be or if they are currently paying license fees. Spokesmen for the production company behind Sherlock and Elementary could not immediately be reached.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:07:29 +0000
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