4Kids Settles Yu-Gi-Oh! Litigation

4Kids Entertainment and Asatsu-DK and TV Tokyo have reached a settlement of the lawsuit brought against 4Kids by ADK and TV Tokyo, the licensors of the Yu-Gi-Oh! property.

The agreement between the companies remains intact, and 4Kids will continue to serve as the exclusive licensing agent for the merchandise licensing, television broadcast and home video rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! property throughout the world outside of Asia.

"We are very pleased that the Yu-Gi-Oh! litigation has been settled," says Michael Goldstein, interim chairman, 4Kids. "We are looking forward to continuing to work with our long-standing partners ADK, TV-Tokyo, Shueisha and Konami on the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand and on the new Yu-Gi-Oh! television series,'Zexal.'"

"The settlement of the litigation enables the Yu-Gi-Oh! Consortium and its partner 4Kids to focus all of their energy on the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand," says Makoto Nakamura, chief executive officer and president, Nihon Ad Systems, a subsidiary of ADK. "We are excited about the future of the Yu-Gi-Oh! property both in the U.S. and worldwide."