Copyright Law Blog

Billion Dollar Animation Industry

August 3rd, 2009 at 06:43pm Under intellectual property

Billion Dollar Animation Industry

The Second Golden Age of Animation is creating enormous revenues from both box office gross to billions of dollars in sales generated by all manner of kids’ products spinning off from Intellectual Properties aimed at the kiddy market, products that range from the bizarre (Spongebob) to the sublime (Harry Potter).

 When was the First Golden Age of Animation? This was a period in American animation history beginning in 1928 that began with the introduction of sound cartoons. It continued into the early 1960s when the introduction of this new medium of television animation drew audiences away from cinemas. It was during these years that an impressive number of Animation Properties came into being; such characters as Tom and Jerry, Superman, Woody Woodpecker, Felix the Cat as well as a huge range of Disney characters.

 Walt Disney’s first films; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi came into being during this era.

 What then is the Second Golden Age of Animation? It is happening today. Traditional animation, called cell animation, had been the standard since the 1920’s. Very labor intensive, cell animation was the backbone of the Disney corporation production facility and other companies such as Hanna Barbera. The introduction of computers, while slow to take hold, has completely changed the face of animation production taking animation from two dimensional characters to three dimensional images that are more realistic, easier to manipulate and store and most importantly, are the backbone of the huge video gaming market.

Animated films have far outstripped other genres in home video and DVD sales in the last fifteen years with retail dollars now capturing 32% of total sales, far ahead of second place comedy at 20% according to the Producer To Producer Book, 2nd Edition. In recent years, the licensing and merchandising industry driven by animated television series targeted at children has performed beyond most industry expectations. An excellent case in point, the children’s craze, Pokemon, surpassed accumulated worldwide sales of $10.0 Billion by 2001. Licensing and Merchandising revenues are expected to exceed $100 Billion annually by the year 2010 fueled by such monster hits as Shrek 2 – $881 Million Dollars, Finding Nemo – $865 Million and The Incredibles – $624 Million to name just three.

The target market for children’s television and films is the 50 million plus 4 – 12 year old North American kids whose buying power for toys, games and puzzles was approximately U.S.$13.4 billion per year in the nineties and now in excess of $200 Billion a year. The secondary markets are Europe, Asia and the Pacific region where North American companies have traditionally experienced success with many movie driven properties.

 Kids buying power grew 12% over the 90’s and is expected to continue at a double digit growth rate well into the 2000’s. So dramatic was this growth of the Kids market that marketers dubbed the 90’s as the “Decade of the Child”.  In response to this phenomenon, more and more toys, clothes, food and entertainment products are being developed for this huge and growing market.  The companies involved in producing children’s live and animated productions have now identified this Kid’s market as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and now team up with toy companies and other manufacturers to exploit this lucrative ancillary market with an unimaginable number of products ranging from downloadable clips for cell phones to video games to social networking websites. 

Computer generated films are now the driving force behind the enormous jump in sales of toys, electronic games and the multitude of other products aimed at the kid and tween market. items.

 What does the future hold in this new Golden Age of Animation? Producers, manufacturers, distributors and kids are always on the lookout for that next new product. What will that be? As usual, it’s anybody’s guess. Who would have thought that some years ago, adults would be fist fighting over something called Cabbage Patch Dolls? Whatever the next hit is, it will no doubt be spawned from the depths of a computer chip.

 The Author and Associates

Michael Trigg is CEO of You N Me Productions Corp, a Vancouver Canada entertainment company. You N Me Productions has joint ventured with Media Kitchen I.N. Teractive and Worlds Away Productions Ltd of New York to produce a new children’s website entitled Greanwold’s World.

Resources

Greanwold’s World www.greanwold.com  is the environment of Greanwold and his Minosaur friends, the newest children’s property in the kids international market place.

Big Money in Kid’s Properties

July 19th, 2009 at 06:43pm Under intellectual property

What is a Property? For most people the term “Property” generally brings to mind real estate or a belonging. In the world of entertainment or licensing and merchandising, a Property refers to a character or a group of characters. In other words, an Intellectual Property. Well known examples are Mickey Mouse as a single Property or the Teenage Ninja Turtles as a group Property.

Properties can be utilized or arise in a book, a comic book, as an image on a cup or can be the focus of a television program or can be utilized in a television commercial.

Billions of dollars have been generated since Mickey Mouse developed in the wonderful mind of Walt Disney and of course the Disney Corporation is the epitome of intellectual Property rights that all others aspire to.

What does a Property consist of? This is where matters become confusing. If you can imagine in your mind, a pizza pie that has been cut up into slices. Or, better still, take a sheet of paper and draw a pizza or a circle. Then, divide the circle into parts – let’s say sixteenths. Each one of those sixteen pieces represents a different part of the whole and each one of those pieces can be sold off or licensed, as is more the common practice.

The following are some of the more common categories that are licensed off as part of a Property; publishing, music, board games, electronic games, clothing, television, action figures, plush dolls, remote control toys, play sets, cards, greeting cards, educational products and so on.

Obviously, the more popular the Property, the more licensing fees are generated and the wider the range of products. A wonderful example of a Property that spun off from a first book is Harry Potter. I’m sure that when J.K. Rowling was slogging over her first book in a London cafe, she had no idea that Harry would become a world-wide phenomena spawning a huge array of children’s products.

If you have an idea for children that you think kids around the world will crave after, get started. The North American licensing and merchandising market totaled sales of over $60 Billion in 2006 and North American kids spent over $200 Billion in the same year. How to get started you ask? If you have an idea for a character and have limited artistic abilities, hire an illustrator or an art school student to take from your mind and transpose it onto paper. If you enjoy telling stories that kids like, even if your writing abilities are marginal, write them down.  The point is – get started. Don’t imagine you are going to be an overnight success. It takes hard work, long hours and a lot of money to become and overnight success, however, if you can develop your idea into something kids enjoy or better still want, you are halfway there.

The Author and Associates

Michael Trigg is CEO of You N Me Productions Corp, a Vancouver Canada entertainment company. You N Me Productions has joint ventured with Media Kitchen I.N.Teractive and Worlds Away Productions Ltd of New York.

Resources

Greanwold’s World www.greanwold.com  is the environment of Greanwold and his Minosaur friends, the newest children’s property in the kids international market place.

Franchising and Intellectual Property – Precaution Matters in Your Business Franchise

July 14th, 2009 at 12:43pm Under intellectual property

As business franchise plan becomes the preferred expansion mode for many SME’s it is important to realise that in today’s knowledge driven economy, businesses can no longer rely only on physical assets but must also build on other aspects of their business such as branding, marketing, their business processes and also the value of Intellectual property.

By recognising that the intellectual property (IP) of your business or franchise business is important, you not only protect your business from pitfalls, but can potentially reap profits when your IP is well managed, protected, licensed or sold. This is especially true of the franchise business format which is becoming increasingly the chosen mode of expansion for successful businesses. When the IP of a brand is not carefully protected in its country of origin and beyond, there is reason to worry that the originator of the brand in question may not actually have rights to the use of its own brand name especially if the brand name has been previously trademarked by another party.

“Businesses spend untold amounts of marketing dollars on building their brand names to distinguish their products from others,” said principal consultant, Hsien Naidu, of business consulting and management consulting firm – Astreem Corporation. “It makes good sense to invest in their brand names by trade marking them rather than exposing themselves to furious back paddling when faced with possibility of losing the rights to use their brand names.” The business consulting firm operates as the core partner for businesses planning to grow their business investments through franchise opportunities. The firm consists of franchise consultants, business consultants, branding consultants and marketing consultants who strongly support on the importance of intellectual property protection.