Licensing

What is Licensing?

If you grew up in the 1980’s, or if you had kids growing up around that time, you may remember that there were actually two different “Ghostbusters” cartoons. One with a gorilla and a couple of guys riding around in a flying car, and another with four guys going around in an ambulance.

So how did the producer of either of these shows not get sued by the producer of the other?

In the 1970’s, there was a short lived television series called “Ghostbusters”. In the early eighties, Columbia Pictures purchased the rights to use the title for their film, “Ghostbusters”, with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. They did not purchase the actual property itself, that is. They only purchased the rights to use the title. Incidentally, they did not actually know that there even was a show called “Ghostbusters” during the early production stages, and only later bought the title to protect themselves from potential legal action. After the success of the film, Filmation, the company that owned the show went into talks with Columbia pictures to make a cartoon series based on the film. Columbia wound up going with a different animation company, DiC, to create the cartoon show based on the series, and, not wanting to be left out in the cold, Filmation wound up continuing the original series in cartoon form so as to continue making money on the Ghostbusters property.

So licensing is basically the idea of selling the rights to an idea. It’s not so much selling the idea itself. Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, recently sold his entire share of the property to his former partner, Peter Laird. This means that Kevin Eastman cannot go out and make a comic book based on the Ninja Turtles without permission from Peter Laird. Licensing is when you sell the rights to a property, a title, a character, a story idea, etcetera, without actually forfeiting any of your own rights.

For example, Universal Pictures has the right to make superhero movies about Iron Man and Spiderman, but that doesn’t mean that Marvel comics cannot keep making comic books about these characters.

Licensing is, honestly, a great way for an artist to make money. In fact, many artists make more money by licensing their characters, music, or other creations to various companies than they do on the actual work itself.

Going back to the Ninja Turtles, when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird drew the first Ninja Turtles comic book, they only had enough money to publish about three thousand copies. It was a hit on the underground comic book scene, but not much else beyond that. Before long, though, a clever licensing lawyer stumbled upon an issue of the comic and a light bulb went off over his head. He quickly arranged meetings with Eastman and Laird, and with various toy companies and animation studios, and, well… Today, Eastman and Laird are both multi-millionaires, mostly thanks to toy licensing, cartoon licensing, video game licensing, and so on.

What makes licensing such a popular option for artists is simply the ability to make money by allowing established companies with higher production budgets to turn a marketable property into a financially successful, well advertised property, and all without giving up ownership. Peter Laird still makes royalty fees every time someone buys another Ninja Turtle, and, because he owns the property, he has veto power. Every toy that the company, Playmates, wants to sell, it doesn’t hit the market until it gets Laird’s stamp of approval.

We’re talking a lot about kid’s entertainment here, simply because that’s really the hot market for licensing. Dora the Explorer, for example, has made its creators millions through licensing, lending characters and concepts to toy companies, book publishers, clothing companies, etcetera. There’s simply more of a market for licensed merchandise in children’s entertainment.

Licensing can also refer to simply loaning a work itself, rather than just the idea behind the work. For example, you might hear a hit pop song in a movie. The musician, or whoever owned the copyright on that song, had to be paid licensing fees before they could put that song in the movie.

There is some moral concern, for some artists, regarding licensing. Bill Watterson, creator of “Calvin and Hobbes”, for example, fought against his syndicate for years to try and make sure that they did not license his characters out to action figure and t-shirt companies. It really is up to the individual copyright holder. Some artists feel that licensing cheapens the integrity of the original work, while others are perfectly comfortable with making some money on toys and other merchandise. Legally, though, Watterson has just as much of a right to say no as Peter Laird has to say yes.