Licensing Award - 2025 Regulations

On the occasion of the 2025 Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids, BolognaFiere shall assign the Bologna Licensing Awards to the BEST LICENSING PROJECT developed during the year 2024 in the PRESCHOOL, KIDS, TEEN and YOUNG ADULT sections, in addition to special prizes for the RETAIL, FASHION, PUBLISHING, TOY and GAMES and BEST PROPERTY OF THE YEAR (2023) categories.
 
In particular, the BEST LICENSING PROJECT award shall take into consideration not only the product category concerned, but especially the innovative characteristics and development of the licensed products, the partners involved, and the project’s market impact.
 
The Bologna Licensing PRESCHOOL Award shall be assigned to the property and/or brand with the best licensed project for the 0-6-yr target group.
 
The Bologna Licensing KIDS Award shall be given to the property and/or brand with the best licensed project for the 6-10-yr target group.
 
The Bologna Licensing TEEN Award shall be given to the property and/or brand with the best licensed project targeting 11-16-yr end users.
 
The Bologna Licensing YOUNG ADULT Award shall be given to the property and/or brand with the best licensed project targeting +16-yr end users.
 
The RETAIL category awards shall be assigned to licensed projects developed by licensors and/or licensing agencies together with retail chains on the basis of the projects’ successful uptake and distribution results; the FASHION category awards shall consider
fashion projects developed for the 0-16+ target.
 
The BEST PROPERTY OF THE YEAR Award shall acknowledge the overall project development excellence of a licence/brand during the year 2024 and its successful market reception.
 
The PUBLISHING prize shall be awarded to the best publishing project developed for bookstores and allied distribution channels (excluding the newsstand channel) that has modelled itself not only on publishing-based products but on all properties, giving rise to a
publishing product of innovative form and content vis-à-vis the original property.
 
The BEST LICENSED TOY AWARD is dedicated to the most innovative development in the toy sector by properties and brands, highlighting best practices in this category that stand out for originality and quality. New for 2025, the BEST LICENSED VIDEOGAME AWARD will also be introduced, which will be given to the best licensing development project in the gaming sector.
 
Always attentive to current market trends, the award dedicated to the BEST SUSTAINABLE LICENSED PROJECT is confirmed, which is a prize aimed at the licensing project that has best been able to meet the current criteria for sustainability and respect for the environment.
 
The award categories for PROMOTION companies will be for the BEST LICENSED PROMOTION/LOYALTY CAMPAIGN, and the BEST LICENSED KIOSK PRODUCT. Licensing programmes and product developments targeting the Italian and foreign markets may be submitted.
 
The Awards in the above-mentioned sections shall be assigned to those projects deemed the best in their category by a Jury of experts. The Award shall consist of an Acknowledgement of Excellence Certificate and the display of the winning projects in special showcases placed in strategic areas around the trade show.

 ART. 1 – REQUIREMENTS

Participation in the Bologna Licensing Awards competition shall be free of charge and is open both to Exhibitors at the 2025 Bologna Licensing Trade Fair and 2025 Bologna Children's Book Fair as well as to all companies operating in kids’ products’ licensing sector.
 
In particular, each participant shall declare and warrant that he/she is the owner or representative of the rights to licensed product and may rightfully submit the brands/properties in question to the Competition.
 

 
ART. 2 – ENTERING LICENSED PROGRAMMES AND PRODUCTS FOR THE COMPETITION
 
Each company may submit one or more licensed products or programmes to the PRESCHOOL, KIDS, TEEN and YOUNG ADULT sections as well as to the special prize categories - RETAIL, FASHION, TOY, VIDEOGAME, PUBLISHING and PROPERTY OF
THE YEAR - provided the products were developed between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024. There shall be no limit to the number of entries each company may make.
 

 
ART. 3 – APPLICATION FORM
 
An Application Form together with a succinct product description must be completed for each licensed programme/project submitted. Application forms and descriptions must be received by email no later than Friday31 st January 2025 at licensing@bolognafiere.it. Only submissions accompanied by a completed and signed Application Form together with a signed copy of the Release of Responsibility Form and Privacy Policy shall be accepted.
 

 
ART. 4 – JURY
 
All the submissions accepted for the Competition shall be adjudicated by a Jury of sector experts. The Jury’s decisions shall be final. The Jury reserves the right to move projects from one section to another, should this be deemed appropriate.
 

 
ART. 5  BOLOGNAFIERE'S RIGHTS
 
While Exhibitors/Companies remain the exclusive owners of the licensed programmes and products submitted, they hereby agree to acknowledge BolognaFiere’s non-exclusive right to:
 
- reproduce images of the products and brands submitted on posters, leaflets or any other printed matter pertinent to the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair, as well as on any other support (CD-ROM, CD-I, on-line systems);
 
- use in any form, even separately and ceding said right to third parties for any reason whatsoever, reproductions of the images of products and trademarks accepted for the competition in the catalogue and in any other publication of the Bologna Children's Book
Fair, provided the name of the licensor and/or licensee of the trademark/product is indicated in the publication; 
 
BolognaFiere also reserves the right reproduce any property/product of its choosing for promotion purposes of both the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair and the Award that is the subject matter of these Regulations.

 

 
ART. 6 – THE AWARD
 
The Award consists of a Certificate and the assignment to the winning Exhibitor of a showcase in a dedicated area of the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in which to display the winning product. Said Award shall be assigned to the Exhibitor that submitted the project. The names of any other companies or licensees involved with the winning programme or project shall also be mentioned on the Award. However, the Award will be given to the Company submitting the project in question.
 

 
ART. 7 – CANCELLATION AND VARIATION OF THE COMPETITION
 
BolognaFiere may, at its sole discretion, cancel or change the dates of the Competition, without any compensation being due to the participants.
 

 
ART. 8 – PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA
 
Information to be provided to the Data Subject pursuant to Art. 13 of Regulation (EU) No. 2016/679 BolognaFiere undertakes to process the personal data provided by Participants in compliance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) No. 2016/679, and with the guidelines and provisions of the Italian Data Protection Authority and with any other applicable statutory requirement.
 
For further details on the processing of your personal data by BolognaFiere, please refer to the Privacy Policy attached to the Application Form and also available on the website.
 

 
ART. 9 – NATURE OF THE INITIATIVE
 
The Event referred to in the Regulations hereto is covered by the block exemption pursuant to Art. 6 of Presidential Decree 430 of 26 October 2001.

 

 
ART. 10 – ITALIAN JURISDICTION AND COMPETENT COURT OF LAW
 
Relations between participants in this Event and BolognaFiere shall be governed by Italian law. Any dispute arising regarding the Competition shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Italian judicial authorities and the exclusive competence of the Court of Bologna.
 

 
ART. 11 – FINAL PROVISION
 
Participation in the Event and use of the Awards are free of charge and shall not give rise to any constraint or commitment of any kind other than those provided for in these Regulations governing the Competition.