The new year means significant changes for Sherlock Holmes' public domain status, which opens up exciting new creative possibilities for adaptations of the classic detective stories. The last remaining intellectual property rights in the Sherlock Holmes stories expired in the US at the end of 2022. Every element of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories is now in the public domain, owned by nobody, and available to anyone to adapt, re-imagine, or copy outright, allowing for a slew of new Sherlock film adaptations.

Story rights come from copyright law, and each country has its own set of laws. The US Constitution spells out those rights in the U.S.A. and clarifies that they can't last forever but leaves it up to Congress to set the terms. Copyright laws in the U.S. and many other countries have been rewritten repeatedly over the last several decades, which has made it confusing to resolve legal disputes. Copyrights include the ability to license TV and film adaptations, and they're worth big money for a character as consistently popular and recognizable as Sherlock Holmes.

Related: Sherlock Holmes Rights Explained: Why Nobody Owns The Great Detective

Sherlock Holmes Is Now Officially Public DomainHenry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 2

As of January 1, 2023, every story about Sherlock Holmes penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is clearly and completely in the public domain. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his stories over several decades. Before 2023, the earlier stories were in the public domain, while the later ones were still subject to copyright. The last Sherlock Holmes stories came out as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927, and everything published in 1927 entered the public domain at the end of 2022 under US federal law.

Arthur Conan Doyle's estate took an aggressive approach to its copyright in the 1927 stories. It demanded license fees from creators of derivative works that drew solely from earlier public domain stories. Estate representatives argued creatively in federal court in a 2013 case that broad character traits and behaviors that first appeared in later stories were protected by U.S. copyright. The court disagreed and ordered the estate to pay the other side's attorney fees.

Sherlock Holmes Can Finally Be A Character, Not A Force Of Nature1894 Drawing of Holmes and Watson. from Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

However, Arthur Conan Doyle's estate continued making expansive copyright claims and filed suit against Netflix and the producers of Enola Holmes. The estate argued that the film's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes as emotionally mature infringed its copyright, as only the later stories depicted such character growth. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, but the threat of such claims by the estate had a definite chilling effect.

The lasting tension of Sherlock Holmes' copyright status shows the wisdom of the Constitution's requirement that copyright protection must be of limited duration. Now that those final 1927 stories have passed into the public domain, creators can freely develop new Sherlock Holmes adaptations and derivative works free from any claims by Arthur Conan Doyle's estate. Robert Downey Jr.'s upcoming Sherlock Holmes 3 film and spinoff TV series for HBOMax, the potential Enola Holmes 3 movie, and other projects are free to show Sherlock Holmes having a more profound personal friendship with Dr. Watson and developing greater respect for women without worrying about litigation.

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