4Kids settles Yu-Gi-Oh! lawsuit

New York-based global children’s firm 4Kids Entertainment has settled the legal case over the Yu-Gi-Oh! action toon series with its Japanese partners.

Under the settlement, 4Kids and the Japanese consortium of Asatsu-DK (ADK), TV Tokyo and Konami would continue to work together on the property and no blame was apportioned to any party.

This comes after ADK and TV Tokyo last year took 4Kids to court over their licence agreement for Yu-Gi-Oh!. But in January their claims relating to auditing were thrown out and a judge ruled the Japanese companies had not terminated the licensing agreement correctly.

This week’s settlement recognised “the Yu-Gi-Oh! agreement among 4Kids, ADK and TV Tokyo is in full force and effect with 4Kids continuing to serve as the exclusive agent” for global licensing and merchandising and TV broadcast and home video rights.

“The settlement does not constitute an admission by any party of any liability or fault but rather reflects the decision made by parties to work together amicably” on the property, a Kids statement added.

“We are very pleased that the Yu-Gi-Oh! litigation has been settled,” said 4Kids’ interim chairman Michael Goldstein. “We are looking forward to continuing to work with our long-standing [Japanese] partners on the brand and on the new television series, Zexal.”

“The settlement of litigation enables the Yu-Gi-Oh! consortium and its partner 4Kids to focus all their energy on the brand. We are excited about the future of the property in both the US and worldwide,” added Makoto Nakamura, president of ADK subsidiary Nihon Ad Systems.

Today’s news is a major boost for 4Kids, which remains in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after being forced into the action in April to fight the case. C21 understands from a well-placed source an entire company sale remains one option under consideration.

The producer-distributor, which has offices in New York and London, handles the rights to other TV series besides Yu-Gi-Oh!, such as Dragon Ball Z and Dinosaur King, and supplies content for The CW’s Saturday morning Japanese block Toonzai on CW 4Kids.

4Kids is not the only children-focused TV company to have faced a rocky period. UK-based company Chorion was forced to break up its assets and auction them off, and this week sold the Agatha Christie literary estate to Acorn Media, and Target Entertainment has gone into administration due to tough trading conditions.

Elsewhere, Chapman Entertainment was forced to make severe redundancies after a potential sale to Canada’s DHX Media fell through, and Hit Entertainment ended months of speculation over its future by selling to US toyco Mattel.