U.S. Public Domain

[Debbie]

Every year, Duke University celebrates Public Domain Day on January 1 to commemorate what materials enter the United States Public Domain. This year's biggest: Winnie the Pooh. This will be interesting because Winnie the Pooh exists at two levels, 1) the book which enters the Public Domain and 2) the brand. Of legal interest will be where does one end and the other begin.

For more information on Public Domain Day and what comes available, go to https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicd...

[Debbie]

Silly me, I forgot to say works entering public domain this year are those published in 1926.

[Timothy]

Sherlock Holmes has been in a similar state for quite some time, the difference largely being that the brand in that case isn't ostensibly owned by Disney (who have the pockets and possibly the inclination to spend time in court).

I remember the Doyle estate did start some legal wrangling with Netflix over Enola Holmes, but it seemed to be settled quickly.

The last of Doyle's Holmes stories should be in the public domain next year.

The House at Pooh Corner will be the year after that. So we still need to be mindful of the Milne Estate's copyright when playing Poohsticks.

[Debbie]

The Enola Holmes case was dismissed because it is a derivitave work of established characters that were in the public domain already and the plaintiff's claim that Holmes was not shown to have any emotional attachments till the latest works was not extensive enough to claim infringement. Just because Holmes did not show the attachments does not suggest they did not exist.

However for Pooh, one can use the image of the bear as he appears in Milne's book, but not the Disney style image with the more square snout and red shirt. Also, Tigger is not yet public domain.

[Jess]

I find all of this very interesting. I have always found copyrights and how they work/ what they cover intriguing. Thank you for all the informational was all new to me. I remember being introduced to copyright quit young from my dad who was teaching me about things like making copy’s of cassette tapes. Most of my knowledge has to do with sheet music.