IP Licensing and Content Development

Cross-Border Licensing of Leading IP

Established entertainment IP operates under highly regionalized licensing rules and capital barriers. In Japan, animation and manga depend heavily on production committees (Seisaku Iinkai). These committees typically consist of 4 to 12 organizations, including publishers holding the original copyrights (Hanmoto, such as Shueisha, Kodansha and Kadokawa), animation studios, television stations, record labels and merchandise or toy companies. Overseas organizations seeking derivative or adaptation rights face lengthy decision-making processes involving all committee members and strict frame-by-frame supervision by publishers. Streaming rights are divided into simulcast rights, with North American seasonal license fees of approximately US$50,000–500,000; subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) rights, generally carrying an exclusive window of 1–5 years; and advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) rights. Substantial minimum guarantees (MG) and subsequent revenue sharing are commonly required. In South Korea, webtoons and web novels, including those associated with Naver Webtoon, Kakao and Munpia, are highly industrialized. Platforms often directly control screen adaptation rights and actively seek cross-border OTT investment and further cross-media development. In Europe and North America, comic-book systems such as Marvel and DC use standardized cross-media option agreements, but intermediary commissions are high and traditional royalty audits and cross-border settlements often take 6–12 months.

Programmable Licensing and On-Chain IP Assets

GKM introduces Story Protocol's Programmable IP License (PIL) and Proof-of-Creativity framework to transform complex off-chain legal agreements into executable on-chain IP assets (IPAssets, IPA). For leading IP from Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea, the platform uses an offshore foundation to sign on-chain mapping agreements with production committees or publishers. Region-specific AI micro-drama adaptation rights are minted as digital asset credentials, allowing fan communities and Web3 investors to participate directly in crowdfunding derivative productions by staking GKM tokens.