LogFAQs > #984108047

Ian Fleming died in 1964. In countries with a life + 70 years copyright term, the character and novels he wrote would enter the public domain in about a decade. (The novels are already public domain in Canada, where the term was life + 50 until December 2022. That was extended to 70 to align with the US, but it didn't reapply copyrights to items that had already fallen into the public domain.)

Once they're in the public domain, promoting new works would get tricky because the name is still trademarked.

Given the frequency of Bond movies, the Broccolis probably figured their window on getting a big payday for the license was closing.