Plus Licens & Design Tokyo to represent Paws, Inc. for all Japanese merchandising, promotional and publishing rights to the Garfield brand
Plus Licens is proud to announce that its daughter company Plus Licens & Design Tokyo has been appointed the licensing agent for Garfield in Japan. Jim Davis’ classic comic strip character now has licensing and/or syndication activities in 111 countries, and some of the strongest markets outside of the US are the Nordic countries and Central and Eastern Europe, where Plus Licens has worked with Garfield for more than two decades.
“Garfield is one of the truly great classics which offers us a exciting challenge”, says Sachiko Imaizumi, managing director of Plus Licens & Design Tokyo. “The Japanese licensing market is undeniably an extremely competitive and demanding market, but we are convinced that there is great opportunity to re-vitalize Garfield through new unique artwork program approaches, based on the abundance of existing artwork banks and our possibilities to draw on our mother company Plus Licens’ successful licensing programs in the Nordic and Eastern Europe.”
“We are happy to extend our long relationship with Garfield and his licensor Paws to another Plus Licens market”, says Plus Licens’ president Peder Tamm. ”From early on, Garfield has been a vital part of our representation portfolio and we are proud of having established the character as one of the classic merchandising and publishing properties in the Nordic countries, as well as having successfully introduced and built the Garfield brand in new territories like Poland and Russia. As we venture into new world markets and creative enterprises through our Plus Licens & Design arm, it feels like a natural step to bring Garfield along, and we are confident that Sachiko Imaizumi and her staff will find new design angles to the classic cat”.
About Plus Licens
Plus Licens is Europe’s largest independent licensing company. Founded in 1977, Plus Licens has a licensing know-how of more than 30 years, working with the majority of the world’s most successful licensors. From our head office in Stockholm, Plus Licens co-ordinates a number of offices – Plus Licens Nordic, Plus Licens Poland, Plus Licens Russia, Plus Licens Ukraine, Plus Licens Prague, Plus Licens Budapest, Plus Licens Bucharest, Plus Licens & Design Paris and Plus Licens & Design Tokyo. The business consists on one hand of the movie- and TV-driven Entertainment Properties and on the other of the fashion-driven Design Rights.
About Paws, Inc.
Paws, Inc., was founded in 1981 by cartoonist Jim Davis, as a creative house to support Garfield licensing. Today, the company, located in rural Indiana, handles not only the creative angle, but also the business concerns of the corpulent kitty worldwide. Paws, Inc. is a privately held company and the sole owner of the copyrights and trademarks for GARFIELD and GARFIELD Characters.
For further information, please contact:
Sachiko Imaizumi, Managing Director, Plus Licens & Design Tokyo
+81-(0)3-6447-2940
sachiko.imaizumi@pluslicens.jp