Justice Kagan today denied the “emergency” petition filed by the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. The Estate sought to have the Supreme Court of the United States stay the effectiveness of the order of the 7th Circuit in Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.. For the details of the case and a copy of the Estate’s petition, see www.free-sherlock.com. The next arena is the District Court, where we have filed a petition asking the Court to award legal fees and costs in the matter; a similar petition is pending in the 7th Circuit.

The essential defense made by the Estate with respect to the fees is that I brought this on myself! Those who have been following the case closely will know that the Estate defaulted (that is, failed to respond) to our action for declaratory relief. The Estate now says that it defaulted to avoid legal fees. I believe that the Estate hoped that I would drop the case, having “won.” We concluded, however, that to accept the default judgment would not only possibly protect ONLY the book that Laurie R. King and I are currently working on, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, it would do nothing to help other creators. Therefore, we decided to ask the Court to rule “on the merits”–that is, to actually decide the copyright issues raised by the case. The District Court did, in a highly favorable manner, and of course the District Court was upheld by the 7th Circuit, notwithstanding the Estate’s “quixotic” appeal.

It ain’t over until it’s over, as a wise man said…