Background
DCP's origins trace back to 1929 when Walt Disney licensed the image of Mickey Mouse for use on a children's writing tablet. On December 16, Walt Disney Productions formed Walt Disney Enterprises (WDE) division to handle merchandising. Mickey Mouse doll production by Charlotte Clark starts in January 1930. The WDE division contracts on February 3 with George Borgfeldt & Company of New York as a licensing agent to make Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys. Borgfeldt & Company on March 27 granted its first license to Walkburger, Tanner and Company of St. Gall, Switzerland, for Mickey and Minnie Mouse handkerchiefs. In England on June 17, Disney grants a general license to William Banks Levy for Mickey and Minnie Mouse character merchandise.
On July 1, 1932, Disney agreed to merchandising contract with Herman Kay Kamen for sole representation. Merchandising maded the Silly Symphony film Three Little Pigs (1933) the company's first profit-making film.
In 1934, Disney licensing expands to hand-crank toy projectors, diamond-studded Mickey Mouse pins, Mickey Mouse toffee in England and a Lionel wind-up train toy while a patent is received for Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Company's Mickey Mouse watch. General Foods licensed Mickey Mouse for one year and $1.5 million on the Post Toasties cereal box as the first licensed character on a cereal box. Disney filed suit on July 31 against the United Biscuit Company of America, Sawyer Biscuit Company, and the Chicago Carton Company for unauthorized use of Disney characters for animal crackers which last four month and ends in Disney's favor.
Disney signed on July 19, 1938 with Courvoisier Galleries, making Courvoisier Disney's original art marketing representative. In December, Walt Disney Enterprises is renamed Walt Disney Productions.
In October 1948, Disney and Kay Kamen extend his merchandising contract but only for the Americas. In 1949, the Character Merchandising Division is formed with in Disney. Also that year on October 28, Kay Kamen, Disney's licensing representative died in an Air France plane crash over the Azores.
After Disney purchased the rights for Winnie the Pooh for a 1966 animated short, Disney agreed to a broad licensing agreement with Sears, Roebuck & Co..
In 1979, the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation of New York was licensed by Walt Disney Productions to make for several countries Disney character stamps.
Read more about this topic: Disney Consumer Products
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