Brandgenuity now represents Sanrio’s Hello Kitty and other brands. Licensing, which Sanrio previously was handled internally, will focus initially on Hello Kitty before broadening to other characters… LMCA now handles licensing for the Emerson brand with a focus on TVs, ear buds, small kitchen appliances and, for the first time, smart home products. For Emerson, which previously handled licensing internally, the agreement follows the end of its long-time pact last year with Funai Corp…. The Joester Loria Group now represents Italian animation studio Rainbow Group’s “44 Cats” preschool series, that started airing on Nickelodeon on June 10. The series first aired on Rai Yo Yo in Italy in November. Rainbow has a master toy agreement with Bandai, with the first U.S. product expects to launch at Walmart in spring 2020. Joester Loria will seek deals for apparel, publishing and other products…. Maurizio Distefano Licensing expands its business representing Italian fashion designers. It started with Filippo Laterza and a line of Angry Birds dresses last fall and has since added children’s luxury apparel designer Stefano Cavalleri. It also represents designers Giovanni Premoli and Dario DiBella’s Premoli + Di Bella label… Reemsborko is expanding its reach in anime. It added the Junji Ito Collection and the upcoming 12-episode “Cannon Busters” Netflix series that is being released this summer. Cannon Busters was originally written as a comic book series by LeSean Thomas and first released in 2004. Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 to fund animated production and Netflix picked up the rights in 2017 with initial plans for releasing the series this past March. Ito has signed a series of licensing agreements with Zee Trading (jigsaw puzzles), Good Smile Co.’s Animegami (figures) and China Manufacturing Direct’s Figpin (enamel badges, stickers). Ripple Junction has launched online sales of t-shirts through Hot Topic in the U.S.

Contacts:

Brandgenuity, Jay Asher, Partner, 212-925-0730, jay@brandgenuity.com

The Joester Loria Group, Debra Joester, Pres., 212-683-5150 x302, djoester@tjlgroup.com

LMCA, Allen Feldman, CEO, 212-265-7474, allen@lmca.net

Maurizio DiStefano Licensing, Maurizio DiStefano, Pres., +39 131 481501, maurizio@mauriziodestefanolicensing.com

Reemsborko, Max Arguile, Pres., max@reemsborko.com