Newly formed Rights & Brands will help expand Nordic properties around the world.

Moomin Characters and Bulls Press, in partnership with Roleff Kråkström and Gustav Melin, have founded a new literary rights and brand licensing agency, Rights & Brands.

“Rights & Brands will be the first 360-degree agency for literary based Nordic rights. We will bring publishing rights to an international arena, while building the potential for licensing, merchandising and full-scale digital presence worldwide,” says Kråkström, chief executive officer, Moomin Characters. “Based on our experiences and successes with Moomin, which today reaches a retail value of €6 million, we know that our formula is scalable and applicable to other brands.”

The new Sweden-based licensing agency will focus on bringing Nordic rights and intellectual properties to a global market. From its onset, Rights & Brands will represent the literary rights for Tove Jansson, Moomin, Hallahem and Magical Fingers, as well as the licensing rights for the Tove Jansson Estate worldwide.

“We have founded Rights & Brands because Nordic creators deserve international exposure. There is a large audience, both in traditional and digital channels, looking for Nordic design and values,” says Margareta Steinsvik, vice president, Bulls Press. “We want to give more people the chance to get to know the fantastic stories and brands that we have in the Nordics. Our established platform makes this possible.”