Character copyright protection covers any details of the character that are not depicted in the public domain works, but only appear in later works still under copyright. This only applies to making new creative works, like movies or writing new stories using the characters.

Examples

• In a lawsuit involving Sherlock Holmes it was argued that mannerisms and similar elements depicted in later copyrighted works cannot be used in the new fictional work Enola Holmes. The court ruled that personality traits cannot be copyrighted. See: Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd., 755 F.3d 496, 502 (7th Cir. 2014)