August 04, 2014
The Seventh Circuit's Judge Richard Posner on Monday blasted the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle's campaign of demanding licensing fees for the use of Sherlock Holmes, calling it a "disreputable business practice" and "a form of extortion."
July 17, 2014
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday denied a bid by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle to stay a Seventh Circuit decision cutting back its copyright on the iconic Sherlock Holmes character, leaving that decision in force as the estate pursues a high court appeal.
July 10, 2014
The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle cannot stay a Seventh Circuit mandate minimizing the estate's copyright for the literary character Sherlock Holmes as it appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to an order filed in the appeals court Wednesday by Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner.
July 07, 2014
The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Seventh Circuit's recent ruling that the character of Sherlock Holmes was mostly in the copyright public domain, according to court papers filed on Thursday.
July 02, 2014
About two weeks after the Seventh Circuit decisively rejected a creative bid by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to extend its control over the character of Sherlock Holmes, the modern-day author who brought the case asked Tuesday to have his legal fees paid.
June 16, 2014
The Seventh Circuit on Monday ruled that Arthur Conan Doyle's character of Sherlock Holmes was almost entirely in the copyright public domain, striking down a bid by the author's estate to extend control of the famed detective that Judge Richard Posner called "quixotic."
May 22, 2014
Arthur Conan Doyle's estate pressed the Seventh Circuit on Thursday to overturn a decision that freed others to put their own spin on the author's iconic Sherlock Holmes character, but ran into a panel of judges who questioned whether the estate was trying to take copyright law in a troubling new direction.
January 07, 2014
Even after last month's ruling that Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is mostly in the copyright public domain, would-be creators of new Holmes content could continue to face IP trouble from an estate that claims a slew of trademark rights to wield against copycats.