On August 26, 2010, Mercis BV, representing Bruna, brought suit against Sanrio with the claim that one of Hello Kitty's companion characters, a rabbit named Cathy, infringes on the copyright and trademark of Miffy.

In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them.

Spokespeople for Sanrio have said that Hello Kitty does not have a mouth because they want people to " project their feelings onto the character " and " be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty.

Beginning in 2007, following trends in Japan, Sanrio began using darker designs for Hello Kitty with more black and less pink, and pulling away from kawaii styles.

Sanrio and various corporate partners have released Hello Kitty-branded products, including the Hello Kitty Stratocaster electric guitar ( since 2006, with Fender in the US ) and even an Airbus A330-200 commercial passenger jet airliner, dubbed the Hello Kitty Jet ( 2005 – 2009, with EVA Airways in Taiwan ).

In Fall 2008, Simmons Jewelry Co. and Sanrio debuted a collection of fine jewellery and watches named “ Hello Kitty ® by Simmons Jewelry Co ." The collection launched with Zales Corporation to further expand the reach of the brand, and it developed accessories to satisfy every Hello Kitty fan.

Because of this growing trend, companies such as Sanrio came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty.

In late 2003, Sanrio won the " Top Brand with a Conscience " award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles.

In 2006, Sanrio launched Sanrio Digital together with Typhoon Games to expand to the Internet, online games and mobile services.

In conjuncture with this, Build-A-Bear Workshop released limited edition stuffed toys of several Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Chococat, My Melody and Keroppi.

On August 26, 2010, Mercis BV, representing Miffy's creator Dick Bruna, brought suit against Sanrio with the claim that one of Hello Kitty's companion characters, a rabbit named Cathy, infringes on the copyright and trademark of Miffy.

Some of the characters by Sanrio were later adapted into various anime series, starting with Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater in 1987.

Similarly, Sanrio, responsible of the Hello Kitty franchise licensed to Nintendo the development of the Pocket Hello Kitty, which was a version of the first Pokémon Pikachu, just with different software / game, this time based in Hello Kitty and her friends and in a pink colored case.

Loeb toured the world again, making special stops in Sanrio stores for in-store autographs while appearing with Hello Kitty at the Japanese MTV Music Awards.

Fashion apparel for men and women is featured prominently in stores, with products from Lip Service, Morbid Threads, Rude, Social Collision, Royal Bones, and also Tripp Star Wars, Disney, Sanrio, Psychopathic Records, WWE, Social Collision, Heartcore Clothing, Iron Fist, Nintendo, Nickelodeon, web celebrities, Invader Zim, Hopeless Records, Harry Potter, Hip-Hop, and more recently, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Regular Show, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Sons Of Anarchy, Resident Evil, Alice in Wonderland, Playboy, Nyan Cat and Domo merchandise.

Earlier collaborations with Tezuka productions included two feature-length films made for Sanrio starring Tezuka's unicorn character Unico.

In January 1998, in cooperation with Sanrio, a " Hello Kitty " version of the Mira Moderno appeared.

Although the TV series was not picked up, Unico soon made it to the silver screen in two feature-length anime films produced by Sanrio and Tezuka Productions with animation by Madhouse Studios.

AH Software in cooperation with Sanrio shared a booth and the event was used to advertise both the a Hello Kitty game and AH Software's new Vocaloid.

Actroid is a type of android ( humanoid robot ) and with strong visual human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd. ( the animatronics division of Sanrio ).

The Hello Kitty trademark has spread globally ; Sanrio earned over $ 1 billion annually in sales outside of Japan, as of 2003.

Hello Kitty is also the main character at the two Japanese Sanrio theme parks, Harmonyland and the indoor Sanrio Puroland.

Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu and was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974.

Sanrio decided to make Hello Kitty British because at the time when she was created, foreign countries, in particular Britain, were trendy in Japan.

In addition, Sanrio already had a number of characters set in the US and they wanted Hello Kitty to be different.

Representatives for Sanrio have said they see Hello Kitty as a symbol of friendship, and they hope she will encourage friendship between people across the world.

Marketed to those who could not get Hello Kitty merchandise as children, or who fondly remembers items they had, Sanrio began selling Hello Kitty branded products like purses and laptops.

According to Sanrio, in 1999 Hello Kitty appeared on 12 000 different products yearly.

Hello Kitty is included as part of the Sanrio livery at the Japanese theme parks Harmonyland and Sanrio Puroland.

Hello Kitty was also chosen by AH-Software to be the basis of the new Vocaloid to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sanrio.

Hello Kitty also has made cameo appearances in games featuring other Sanrio characters, such as the Keroppi game, Kero Kero Keroppi no Bōken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroleen.

* Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams ( 2008, Nintendo DS )-an adventure game published by Empire Interactive developed by Sanrio Digital.

( full name Kitty White ) is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu.

In the game, Hello Kitty moves to the Big City where she meets other Sanrio characters and makes new friends.

* Hello Kitty Seasons-A game where your playable character is appointed as Deputy Mayor to help Sanrio Town.

Darky iconography is still popular in Japan today, but when Japanese toymaker Sanrio Corporation exported a darky-icon character doll ( the doll, Bibinba, had fat, pink lips and rings in its ears ) in the 1990s, the ensuing controversy prompted Sanrio to halt production.

In early 2011, the Sanrio character, Hello Kitty joins the Jelly Belly company and has her own favorite six flavors.

Besides selling character goods, Sanrio takes part in movie production and publishing.

For a short time, Osamu Tezuka's baby unicorn character Unico, who starred in two feature-length anime movies in the early 1980s, was also part of the Sanrio empire ; however, the rights to Unico shifted to Osamu Tezuka's own company after Tezuka's death in 1989.

Sanrio character Hello Kitty depicted on a bus

* Kiki, a character created by the Japanese company Sanrio

Sanrio character (" Cinnamoroll ") ( Cappuccino )

* Chococat is a boy cat character by Sanrio, similar to Hello Kitty.

* Sanrio character (" Cinnamoroll ") ( Chiffon, Milk )

* Sanrio character (" Cinnamoroll ") ( Mocha )

* My Melody, a fictional character created by Sanrio

* Onegai My Melody, a 2005 Japanese anime series based on the Sanrio character

is a Japanese character from the company San-X, who, like Sanrio creations Hello Kitty and Badtz Maru, can be found in books, anime, toys, stationery, and a number of other formats.

* Landry ( Sanrio character ), fictional boy raccoon created by the Japanese toy company Sanrio

Badtz-Maru, a fellow character of Hello Kitty from Japanese company Sanrio, was the official 2006 mascot.