Sherlock Holmes in the Law Courts
Sherlock Holmes in the Law Courts is an article published in The Daily News on 9 september 1901.
About the play Sherlock Holmes at the Lyceum Theatre, London, UK.
Sherlock Holmes in the Law Courts
The refusal of Mr. Justice Joyce to grant an injunction restraining Mr. William Gillette and the management of the Lyceum from using the title "Sherlock Holmes" in the public announcement of the new play to be produced at that theatre to-night will have been anticipated by legal readers; but it must not be inferred from this that a mere name, even though it has long been familiar in the public eye and car, might not constitute a title to which our Courts would under other circumstances extend protection. Strictly speaking, this is not a question of Copyright Law, as is shown at once by the fact that though literary copyright lasts only for forty-two years, or the life of the author and seven years' grace, we have periodicals the titles of which are perfectly secure, though the have been in uninterrupted use for considerably more than a century. Titles are, in brief, protected only on general principles of equity, which forbid the copying or colourable imitation of another person's title in a way to deceive the public. In this instance the Lyceum management contended that the production of Mr. Gillette's play would not inflict any injury on the owners of the copyright of the late Mr. Charles Rogers's "Sherlock Holmes," which was produced, it seems, in the country eight years ago and does not appear to have yet found its way to town. Certainly it would be difficult to find in the case the urgent need for relief which could alone justify the granting of an injunction.
