The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a Court of Appeals ruling that the bulk of the Sherlock Holmes characters (except those introduced in the 1920s) are in the public domain, according to Variety.  The ruling clears the way for uses of the property such as the anthology of Holmes stories that launched the original lawsuit.   

The Appeals Court judge who ruled against the estate, Judge Richard Posner, told the estate, the “Doyle estate’s business strategy is plain,” he wrote, “charge a modest license fee for which there is no legal basis, in the hope that the ‘rational’ writer or publisher asked for the fee will pay it rather than incur a greater cost, in legal expenses, in challenging the legality of the demand.” 

The Arthur Conan Doyle estate has blessed the Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch on PBS, although there’s now no need for that approval from a legal or licensing standpoint.