Most buyers assume the company that created a product still owns it. For Squishmallows, that assumption is wrong. Kelly Toys launched the plush line in 2017, but the trademark now belongs to Jazwares, a Berkshire Hathaway company. Until you adjust that mental model, you can easily misread authentic packaging as counterfeit or skip the official channel that actually guarantees the product.
The Name on the Tag Isn't the Owner
Walk through any toy aisle and you will see Squishmallows with the Kelly Toys name printed somewhere on the packaging. That is not an accident: Kelly Toys Holdings LLC did launch the brand in 2017, and a Wikipedia entry for Squishmallows confirms that origin. Many buyers read that launch credit as proof of ownership, so they assume Kelly Toys still controls the brand today. The logic feels natural—the company that made something famous usually keeps the rights. But the record is more subtle. The same source that credits Kelly Toys with the launch also names a different company as the current owner. Letting the creator label stand in for the ownership label is the exact mistake that leads to confusion at checkout.
The record itself changes the picture: Squishmallows was launched by Kelly Toys in 2017, and it is owned by Jazwares. Jazwares, in turn, is a Berkshire Hathaway company, which gives the brand a large corporate backing. When you are checking authenticity, the trademark holder is the name that matters for legal and retail purposes. Kelly Toys remains an important historical figure, but it is not the party that licenses, produces, or controls the Squishmallows brand today. That is why a simple search for 'Squishmallows trademark' leads to Jazwares, not Kelly Toys. The correction is not a minor detail; it changes where you should direct your trust.
Kelly Toys Launched It, Jazwares Owns It
Separating the launch role from the ownership role makes the timeline easy to follow. In 2017, Kelly Toys Holdings LLC introduced Squishmallows to the market, and that original lineup gave the plush toys their identity. At that moment, Kelly Toys was both the creator and the mover behind the brand. Corporate ownership, however, is a separate question. The current ownership is held by Jazwares, which absorbed the brand into its portfolio. This is common in the toy industry: a launch partner can be the founder, while a larger company becomes the owner. When a brand changes hands, the packaging often keeps old names for a while, which is why you can still find Kelly Toys on legitimate products.
The scale of the Squishmallows lineup makes the ownership question practical rather than academic. The brand has created over 3,000 designs, including animals, foods, and objects in multiple sizes and textures. A catalog that large flows through official distribution channels, licensing agreements, and retailer partnerships that only a current owner can manage. Knowing that Jazwares holds the trademark gives you a shortcut: the official Jazwares website and authorized retailers are the places where a design is reliable. The 3,000-plus figure also means that counterfeiters have a huge target, so the official channel becomes the only safe way to be sure you are getting a genuine item.
Verify the Trademark, Not Just the Packaging
You would not buy a car seat just because the box looked right; you would check the latest safety rating from an authoritative source. The same habit should apply to Squishmallows. A Consumer Reports article on new car seat regulations, published on June 24, 2025, explained that the federal standard now includes side-impact testing after more than 100,000 children were injured in traffic collisions in 2022. The lesson is that official updates override what the package claims. For a plush toy, the official update is the trademark record. Look up the current trademark owner, visit the manufacturer's official site, and confirm that the seller you are using is listed as an authorized retailer. If the only validation you have is the name printed on the tag, you are working with incomplete information.
A similar pattern shows up in a completely different product category. When the CDC released new guidelines for cleaning breast pump kits, the key message was to follow the agency's official steps rather than habits passed down by other parents. The guidelines came from a trusted authority, and they overrode what people assumed they knew. For Squishmallows, the trusted authority on ownership is the trademark registration and the official Jazwares channel, not the historical name that appears on the packaging. In both cases, the practical rule is the same: identify the authoritative source, check what it says, and let that determine your decision. Brand history can tell you where a product came from, but only the current owner can tell you what is authentic today.
A Kelly Toys Label Isn't a Counterfeit Signal
The correction above can trigger a second misconception. Once you learn that Jazwares owns Squishmallows, you might assume that any product still displaying Kelly Toys must be fake. That assumption is just as unreliable as the first one. The Kelly Toys name has legitimate reasons to appear: it is the launch partner, and older products or licensed reissues may carry that name as part of the original branding. A product with the Kelly Toys label can be authentic if it came from an official distribution channel and matches the current product line. The label alone does not prove counterfeit, just as the Jazwares label alone does not prove authenticity. You need to look at the full picture of where and how you are buying.
What separates a genuine Squishmallows from a fake is not the name on the tag; it is the channel and the product details. An authentic item comes from an official retailer, has consistent printing, uses the right fabric, and matches the design catalog that Jazwares controls. A counterfeit item might copy the Kelly Toys label specifically because that name feels familiar to buyers, which is why trusting the label in either direction is dangerous. If you see a price that looks too low or a seller with no official ties, the absence of the Jazwares name is a warning, but the presence of the Kelly Toys name is not proof of anything. Use both the history and the trademark record together to make a reasoned decision.
Verdict: Trust Jazwares, but Buy Through Official Channels
Here is the bottom line: Jazwares owns Squishmallows. When you want to buy a genuine plush, treat Jazwares as the trademark owner and make the official website or an authorized retailer your first stop. The official channel gives you the current catalog, the correct prices, and the seller guarantees you cannot get from an unknown source. The 2017 launch role of Kelly Toys does not change this verdict. It only explains why the older name keeps showing up. For your purchase decision, the owner controls the brand, so the owner's channel is the place to trust.
The boundary is simple to apply. Kelly Toys belongs to the history of Squishmallows; Jazwares belongs to its present and future. When you see Kelly Toys on packaging, understand what it is: a reference to the original launch partner, not a statement of current ownership. When you see the Jazwares name, you still need to verify that the seller is legitimate, because a brand name can be copied too. Put the history in context, check the official record, and buy from a channel that Jazwares recognizes. That combination will protect you from both the outdated assumption and the overcorrection.
The verdict is not a compromise: Jazwares holds the trademark, Kelly Toys holds the history. When you pick up a Squishmallows, let the official channel and the trademark record decide its authenticity, not the name that a creator left behind years ago. That is the only judgment you need to make a confident purchase.
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