Paws, Inc.

Paws, Inc., doing business as Paws, Incorporated, is an American animation studio and production company founded by American cartoonist Jim Davis in 1981[1] to support the Garfield comic strips and its licensing. The company is located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. It was originally located in Muncie, Indiana, relocated in 1989 from Davis' own farm when he was a boy,[2] and then was relocated to One Astor Plaza in New York City after being acquired in 2019 by the second incarnation of Viacom months before its re-merger with CBS Corporation.

History

In 1994, the company purchased all rights to the classic Garfield comic strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature Syndicate, although United still holds the original black-and-white daily strips and original color Sunday strips. The full-color daily strips and recolored Sunday strips are copyrighted to Paws as they are considered a different product. The strip is currently distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Press Syndicate and Universal Uclick), while rights for the strip remain with Paws, Inc. By 2015, the company employed almost fifty artists and administrators.[3]

In 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to the second incarnation of Viacom, which would later re-merge with CBS Corporation to form ViacomCBS, later renamed to Paramount Global, including global merchandising and existing licensees. The deal put Paws under Paramount's Nickelodeon banner (which itself is part of its Kids & Family division).[4] The deal excluded the rights to the live-action Garfield films from 2004 to 2006, which are still owned by 20th Century Studios (which is now a division of The Walt Disney Company),[4] as well as the animated film The Garfield Movie, which is owned and distributed by Sony Pictures under its Columbia Pictures label.

Although Paws, Inc. is now effectively located at the Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles as of the August 2025 formation of the current parent company Paramount Skydance Corporation, Davis still continues to draw the comic strips in Indiana for newspapers and Andrews McMeel Syndication.[5]

Filmography