Elementary, my dear Watson

US court rejects Sherlock Holmes dispute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The case of the disputed Sherlock Holmes copyright is hereby closed after the US Supreme Court on Monday left intact a ruling that said 50 works featuring the famed fictional detective are in the public domain.

The high court's justices, which like the eccentric detective get to decide which cases to tackle, declined to hear an appeal filed by the estate of author Arthur Conan Doyle, who died in 1930.

The estate had wanted writer Leslie Klinger to pay a $5,000 licence fee before a volume of new stories based on the Holmes character, famed for his genius IQ, deerstalker hat and cocaine habit, could be published.

The court's action means that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from June in Klinger's favor is the final word in the case. The appeals court held that the 50 Sherlock Holmes works published before 1923 are in the public domain as copyright protections have expired.

The works depict the brilliant Victorianera detective and include references to his sidekick Dr. Watson, his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty, 221B Baker Street, and even Holmes' cocaine use.

The appeals court said only Conan Doyle's last 10 Holmes works, which were published between 1923 and 1927 and have copyrights expiring after 95 years, deserved protection.