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26 May 2015Copyright

Sherlock Holmes film targeted in copyright complaint

The estate of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has claimed that a novel and film adaptation centring on the character’s later years infringe its copyright and trademarks.

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday (May 21) at the US District Court for the District of New Mexico, the estate argued that the novel “A Slight Trick of the Mind” by Mitch Cullin and its film adaptation, “Mr. Holmes”, infringe its intellectual property.

Publishing company Penguin Random House, named as a defendant in the case, published Cullin’s novel in 2006.

Later this year, film studio Miramax, which has also been targeted, is set to release a film version starring actor Sir Ian McKellen.

Cullin adapted the novel into a screenplay for the film.

The estate argued that although 50 short stories written by Conan Doyle are in the public domain, ten short stories published between 1923 and 1927 are still protected by copyright.

Those stories focus on the retirement years of Holmes, the estate claimed.

In the complaint, the estate said: “The copyrighted mature Holmes is quite unlike the more clinical and purely rational Holmes described in the public domain stories.

“Conan Doyle expresses this change through Holmes’s dialogue and the tone of his narration. Cullin infringes this copyrighted character development on every page of his book.

“The remaining defendants have participated in copying these protected stories in the infringing film, have published and distributed the infringing novel … and have titled the movie so as to confuse consumers and unfairly trade on the Conan Doyle Estate’s goodwill,” it added.

The estate has demanded that the district court find that the defendants' wilfully infringed its IP rights.

Benjamin Allison, counsel for the estate, told WIPR:  "The book on which the film is based plagiarises passage after passage from Conan Doyle's copyrighted stories about the later years of Sherlock Holmes."

He added that the producers of the "Mr. Holmes" film gave assurances that they would seek a licence from the estate to use the works but that they never followed up.

Neither Miramax nor Penguin Random House had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

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