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Per The Hollywood Reporter, the original “Sherlock Holmes” stories were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which have inspired many different on-screen adaptations. Although many such stories have entered the public domain, some have not, which is the source of contention between Doyle’s estate and Netflix. Doyle’s estate argues that the still copyrighted stories feature a warm and compassionate version of Sherlock, while the ones that have become public domain feature a cold and calculating individual. The reason for this shift in personality is that Doyle had lost his son and brother in World War I, and he decided that Sherlock should have a bit more nuance after these real-life tragedies.
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Red Points notes that United Kingdom copyright law only lasts 70 years after the death of the author, which means that all Sherlock works are free to use in the U.K., but that is only for that country. As such, there are 10 stories that are still under copyright in the United States, and Doyle’s Estate argued that Netflix was taking elements from the still-copyrighted stories. This had not been the first time Doyle’s estate has taken this issue up, and in 2013, they attempted to extract a licensing fee from Leslie S. Klinger because of an anthology series he was working on involving Sherlock Holmes. The courts eventually sided with Klinger and said that he was free to use Sherlock’s character, but was barred from specific characters and story elements from the aforementioned 10 stories.
