Middle - earth Enterprises - wikipedia Middle - earth Enterprises Middle - earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, is a trading name for a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, located in Berkeley, California. The company owns the worldwide exclusive rights to certain elements of J.R.R. Tolkien 's two most famous literary works : The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. These elements include the titles of the works, the names of characters contained within as well as the names of places, objects and events within them, and certain short phrases and sayings from the works. Contents 1 Background and history 1.1 Legal disputes 2 Licences 3 See also 4 References 5 External links Background and history J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sold the film, stage and merchandising rights of those works to United Artists in 1968, who in turn sold them to The Saul Zaentz Company in 1976, which licenses them through the former Tolkien Enterprises, now Middle - earth Enterprises. United Artists retained distribution rights. In 1977, Rankin / Bass licensed the rights to produce an animated version of The Hobbit, which was broadcast on NBC. In 1978, Tolkien Enterprises and the distributor United Artists funded and released an animated version of The Lord of the Rings directed by Ralph Bakshi, which covered approximately the first half of the Lord of the Rings. In 1999, the company severed their licensing agreement with Iron Crown Enterprises ( ICE ) for role - playing games set in Middle - earth after ICE ceased developing new products for this line. This contributed to ICE filing for bankruptcy in 2001. Tolkien Enterprises then made a new licensing agreement with Decipher Inc. for their Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, which published content from 2002 -- 2006. Initially, Miramax was backing the production of Peter Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings films in 1997, but was restricted by then - owner Disney, who demanded that they turn the story into one film instead of two films, thus Jackson brought the project to New Line Cinema, who acquired from Miramax the rights to develop The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for about $12 million. ( Miramax retained a 5 % stake in the gross. ) Principal photography for Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was conducted concurrently in New Zealand from 11 October 1999 through to 22 December 2000. Produced under license from Tolkien Enterprises and released by New Line between 2001 and 2003, the films met critical and commercial success. However, in August 2004, Tolkien Enterprises sued New Line for $20 million in unpaid royalties based on the difference between gross and net profits. An out - of - court settlement was reached in August 2005, though details were not released. Video game rights to Tolkien 's literary works were first licensed to Vivendi, which produced The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002 and The Hobbit in 2003. At around the same time licensing agreements for products relating to the films produced by Peter Jackson were obtained by Electronic Arts ( EA ), leading to the release of a series of games, starting with The Two Towers in 2002. In 2005 EA acquired the rights to produce games based on the literary works as well, producing further titles up to the release of The Lord of the Rings : Conquest in 2009, when the licensing agreement expired. Video game rights then passed to Warner Brothers. In 2010, the name was changed to Middle - earth Enterprises. In 2011, Cubicle 7 produced The One Ring Roleplaying Game, a licensed role - playing game set in Middle - earth, in collaboration with Sophisticated Games. While the game featured its own unique rules, Cubicle 7 announced on March 14, 2016, that it would create an adaptation using tabletop gaming rules compatible with Dungeons & Dragons. Legal disputes In March 2012, it was reported in various news services that The Hobbit, a public house in Southampton, UK, had been served with papers by Middle - earth Enterprises outlining breach of copyright over the name of the pub. The Hungry Hobbit café, located in Birmingham near where J.R.R. Tolkien grew up, was also threatened with legal action in 2011. In November 2012, the Tolkien Estate, trustee and publishers sued Middle - earth Enterprises ( in addition to Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema ) for infringing Tolkien 's copyrights by producing casino and video games using his characters. The original license to Tolkien 's works was limited to the right to sell `` tangible '' products such as `` figurines, tableware, stationery items, clothing, and the like '', but did not cover `` electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services ''. Tolkien 's estate claimed that the defendants ' actions had caused `` irreparable harm to Tolkien 's legacy ''. Licences As of April 2009, the company 's current licensees are as follows. Adaptations : New Line Cinema -- Film rights. Kevin Wallace Ltd for a stage production of The Lord of the Rings Games Video games : Up to 2009 Electronic Arts -- for games based on both books in addition to an official film trilogy license from New Line Cinema. Post 2009 Warner Bros. Turbine, Inc. for an online role - playing game, The Lord of the Rings Online -- up to 2014 Other games : Decipher Inc. for the trading card ( TCG ) and roleplaying games Games Workshop PLC for a range of miniatures, games ( The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and Battle of Five Armies ) and Battle Games in Middle - earth magazine Game Systems International Ltd. ( Games Systems Inc. ) for Middle - Earth Play - By - Mail released by Game Systems Inc. and the One Ring module of Legends ( PBM ) released by Harlequin Games. Sophisticated Games for a range of board games Mithril Miniatures for a range of 28 mm scale metal miniatures US Games Systems Inc. -- a Lord of the rings based Tarot card deck and game. Collectibles : Danbury Mint for a variety of related merchandise such as film cells, watches and goblets Lladró Comercial, S.A. Royal Selangor International for a range of pewter goblets, tankards and chess pieces Toys : Lego acquired a license to produce a range of sets in relation to the film series The Hobbit and released their first sets in 2011. See also Tolkien Estate, hereditary owners of the copyrights to Tolkien 's works. Category : Works based on Middle - earth, containing adaptions of Tolkien 's works on Middle - earth. Middle - earth in video games, a history of video and computer game adaptions, both licensed and unlicensed. References ^ Jump up to : `` About ''. Middle - earth Enterprises. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Jump up ^ Dotinga, William ( November 26, 2012 ). `` Tolkiens Aghast at Warner Bros. ' Exploitation ''. Courthouse News. Retrieved November 6, 2017. ^ Jump up to : Quinn, Karl ( 14 December 2013 ). `` Lord of the Rings a chronicle of legal disputes ''. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved November 6, 2017. Jump up ^ Ea Granted Rights to Develop the Lord of the Rings Games Based on J.R.R. Tolkien 'S Epic Literary Fiction, 25 July 2005, EA press release gamershell.com Jump up ^ IncGamers : Tolkien IP License, 23 February 2009 incgamers.com Jump up ^ Lord of the Rings game rights now at Warner Bros Archived 15 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. weblogs.variety.com Jump up ^ ( 1 ) `` cubicle7.co.uk D&D comes to Middle - Earth, 14, March 2016, Cubicle 7 press release '' Jump up ^ `` Hobbit pub in Southampton threatened with legal action ''. BBC News. 13 March 2012. Jump up ^ Brooks, Xan ( 14 March 2012 ). `` Stephen Fry joins The Hobbit pub 's fight with Hollywood ''. The Guardian. Jump up ^ `` Hungry Hobbit café told to change name ''. BBC News. 21 November 2011. Jump up ^ `` Tolkien estate sues Hobbit producers over video and gambling games ''. The Guardian. 20 November 2012. Jump up ^ TURBINE AND TOLKIEN ENTERPRISES EXTEND RELATIONSHIP turbine.com External links Middle - earth Enterprises website Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle-earth_Enterprises&oldid=814351600 '' Categories : Companies based in Berkeley, California Intellectual property organizations J.R.R. Tolkien Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links EngvarB from August 2014 Use dmy dates from August 2014 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español Français Edit links This page was last edited on 8 December 2017, at 08 : 15. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who owns the lord of the rings franchise
Answer: Middle-earth Enterprises