BattleTech was created by
FASA, who held the
IP rights to the universe up until they withdrew from the market in 2001. They licensed limited rights to a number of third parties (such as
Ral Partha to produce miniatures, publishing houses for comics, and later
Roc Books for the novels, among others). The rights to produce computer games were with
FASA Interactive, which was eventually sold - including the IP rights to computer games - to
Microsoft.
In 2001, FASA ceased its active operations and the BattleTech IP (minus the computer games license now held by Microsoft) was transferred to
WizKids, a new firm owned by FASA co-founder Jordan Weisman. WizKids split the IP, creating
Classic BattleTech and
MechWarrior: Dark Age as separate brands.
The Classic BattleTech IP was licensed to
FanPro, a German games publisher who had previously produced the German edition of BattleTech, in the summer of 2001. FanPro had created FanPro LLC, a US-based sister company, to continue the original, English-language BattleTech line.
Meanwhile, WizKids produced a new
Clix-based game in the
MechWarrior: Dark Age setting, set almost a century after the current BattleTech timeline.
In 2003, WizKids was bought by the
Topps company. In the same year, they granted a license to
InMediaRes to publish new,
canon BattleTech material on the internet, which led to the creation of the
BattleCorps site.
In 2007, FanPro's BattleTech license ran out and was not renewed. In their stead, InMediaRes acquired the full license from Topps/WizKids, and created their
Catalyst Game Labs subsidiary to continue the classic game line.
Topps terminated WizKids as a brand in 2008 and discontinued the Clix game lines, including
MechWarrior: Dark Age. Ever since,
Classic BattleTech is marketed simply as
BattleTech again. The license remained with InMediaRes.
