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While Netflix’s Enola Holmes went on to be a successful affair for everyone involved, it did gather some negative eyeballs too. We saw Conan Dyle’s estate sued the makers of the film back in June. Now, as per the makers, they are saying that the estate is trying to unfairly prevent the creators from using the iconic characters in films and other projects. Read on to know more about the same.
For the unversed, the late Conan Dyle’s estate has not just sued Netflix, but also Legendary pictures, The Enola Holmes Mysteries author Nancy Springer, screenwriter Jack Thorne and director Harry Bradbeer. It turns out that the defendants have now blasted out at the estate calling the move an unfair practice.
As per the defendants, not jus Enola Holmes, but more than 50 stories related to Sherlock Holmes are out there in the public domain. In the motion filed to dismiss, the defendants say that Conan Dyle’s estate is forcing people to pay for the usage of these iconic characters in their projects.
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In their lawsuit against Enola Holmes, the estate had stated that the personality traits that Millie Bobby Brown as Enola showed were under the copyright act and the makers violated it. The defendants have also replied to this point as well.
Attorney for the defendants, Nicolas Jampol in their motion as per The Hollywood Reporter, wrote, “In this case, even if the Emotion Trait and Respect Trait were original to copyright-protected works, which they are not, they are unprotectable ideas. Copyright law does not allow the ownership of generic concepts like warmth, kindness, empathy, or respect, even as expressed by a public domain character — which, of course, belongs to the public, not Plaintiff.”
The estate also says that the makers have also conducted trademark infringement where they used Holmes in Enola Holmes. The defendant argued that the title is in context to the story, and in no way does it mislead the viewers at all.
Nicolas Jampol wrote, “Here, Plaintiff attempts to use trademark law to do what copyright law can no longer do: prevent others from freely using and adapting Sherlock Holmes in their own works. But this is not the function of trademark law. Allowing Plaintiff to prevent the creation of new works featuring public domain material runs contrary to the ‘carefully crafted bargain’ embodied in copyright law, and Plaintiff’s attempt to create a perpetual copyright should be rejected.”
Enola Holmes starred Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin in the lead roles.
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