Mattel Awarded $100M In Bratz Doll Copyright Lawsuit

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages Tuesday after a serious girl fight between the house of Barbie and the maker of her chief rival, the pouty-lipped Bratz dolls.

MGA Entertainment Inc. and its chief executive officer Isaac Larian were told to pay a total of $90 million in three causes of action related to Mattel's employment contract with designer Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept. The jury also ordered MGA, Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong to pay a total of $10 million for copyright infringement.

The amount fell far short of the $1.8 billion that Mattel attorneys had demanded in their closing arguments. Still, the world's largest toy maker hailed the damage award as a victory and said it planned to file an injunction to stop MGA from producing the Bratz line.

"Mattel has pursued this case first and foremost as a matter of principle," Mattel CEO Robert A. Eckert said. "We have an obligation to defend ourselves against competitors who choose to engage in fraudulent activities against us."

Larian said he would appeal, and MGA attorney Thomas Nolan contended that the three awards related to the contract dispute were duplicative.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson must decide if that's true and determine a final amount to be paid to Mattel at a future hearing. Nolan said he planned to ask Larson to set total damages at no more than $40 million.

The jury did not award any punitive damages and found that neither Larian nor MGA acted willfully when they used Bryant's drawings, which could have increased the damages.

"We are thrilled that this jury sent a strong message that they want these companies to compete in the marketplace and not the courtroom," Nolan said.

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Larian said MGA would keep making Bratz dolls even as Mattel attorneys prepared to meet Wednesday to discuss their legal strategies.

The same jury that decided the damages phase concluded last month that Bratz designer Carter Bryant came up with the Bratz concept while working at Mattel. Jurors placed the value of Bryant's drawings at $31,500, and awarded that plus interest to Mattel.

In his closing arguments, Mattel attorney John Quinn said MGA owed Mattel at least $1 billion in Bratz profits and interest, while chief executive Isaac Larian aided in the breach of contract and owed nearly $800 million for his complicity.

MGA attorneys countered that the jury should award Mattel as little as $30 million because the company had built the doll line's value with smart additions, branding and packaging.

The jury awarded damages Tuesday of $20 million against MGA and $10 million against Larian in each of three causes of action _ intentional interference with contractual relations, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding and abetting breach of the duty of loyalty.

They also found that MGA owed Mattel $6 million for copyright infringement, while Larian owed $3 million in distributions he'd received from Bratz-related sales and MGA Hong Kong owed $1 million.

After their introduction in 2001, the Bratz line exploded in popularity among "tweens" _ girls 7 to 12. The highly stylized fashion dolls have oversized feet, heads and hands, curling lashes and huge, almond-shaped eyes daubed with exotic-colored eyeshadow.

In the past seven years, MGA has built the popular brand to include more than 40 characters and expanded it with spin-offs such as Bratz Babyz, Bratz Petz, Bratz Boyz and items like helmets, backpacks and bedsheets.

Sales of Barbie _ a near rite-of-passage in American girlhood _ have slid since Bratz's Yasmin, Cloe, Jade and Sasha came on the scene. Domestic sales of Barbie were down 15 percent in 2007 and 12 percent in the first quarter of 2008, while international sales increased 6 percent in 2008 as opposed to 12 percent the previous year.

Bryant settled with Mattel on the eve of trial. The terms of that settlement have not been made public.

____

On the Net:

MGA Entertainment Inc.: http://www.bratz.com

Mattel Inc.: http://www.barbie.everythinggirl.com

Comments

[trinity]

HuffPo must be a Bratz fan...have yet to get my comment posted...

Just what I want for my daughter...a doll that makes looking like a cheap flashy prostitute every girl's dream. Not that I like Barbie either...but Bratz is Barbie with Botox and collagen injections. Either way, the girls who make them in China could never afford to actually buy one.

In regards to the ruling...not sure how Mattel is, but Walt Disney had a clause in the contracts stating that anything an animators/artists create (even on their own time, not for Disney) while under Disney employment, becomes Disney property. You have to sell your creative soul to work there. Maybe Mattel had a similar creative clause.

[JBS]

Same employment contract as it used to be at IBM.

Any software you wrote; any product idea, even ideas totally un-related to computing, you came up with while employed at IBM belonged to IBM, even if you only worked on it in the dead of night while at home.

S.O.P. in the corporate world.

[trinity]

Just what I want for my daughter...a doll that makes looking like a cheap flashy whor* fashionable. Not that I like Barbie either...but Bratz is Barbie with Botox and collagen injections. Either way, the girls who make them in China could never afford to actually buy one.

In regards to the ruling...not sure how Mattel is, but Walt Disney had a clause in the contracts stating that anything an animators/artists create (even on their own time, not for Disney) while under Disney employment, becomes Disney property. You have to sell your creative soul to work there. Maybe Mattel had a similar creative clause.

[JBS]

It's a fairly standard clause in a lot of employment contracts. IBM used to have the same one. Anything you invented, even anything TOTALLY and COMPLETELY UNRELATED to computers. If you thought it up while you worked for IBM, belonged to IBM.

If you didn't sign, you didn't get hired.

It's not the best way to run a business. While I was at IBM, I didn't have a single new idea. Had plenty before and after, but none while I worked there.

[Sundialsvc4]

I think that the jury spoke volumes here.

"So you came up with the idea of 'a different doll' while you were working for us." Whuppy.

You're all in the business of designing dolls, and there's only so many ways to paint a face in a less-than one-inch area of cheap plastic. Only so many ways to market them, and Barbie hasn't changed its image in 50 years. Someone else got Bored With Barbie and launched some actual competition, and all that Mattel could think of to say was, "you thought of it when you worked for us?"

So... why did they "quit?" They quit because their employer could think of nothing but Barbie. And apparently they still can't.

[jwws007]

2 companies fighting over cheap imported crap from china, go figure

[JBS]

2 companies fighting over REALLY PROFITABLE cheap imported crap.

[UpstateNYMom]

That is so lame- Bratz is way better than barbie- what about free market. If Barbie thought they had Bratz beat then why did they come out with the My Scene daolls. Bratz should have sued them. All I know is that the barbie shoes never stayed on and Bratz never come off (unless you want them to). what a joke.

[democratsaint]

this is probaly all they will get. bratz will continue to trash barbie sales. there will be no injunction since that would only be the case if it was a copyright violation. they got the 100 mill as basically severance.
they frankly got more than they should.

[JBS]

With a final judgment in hand, Mattel can go to the U.S. Customs to have them seize & destroy any Bratz products imported into the U.S. without Mattel's permission.

That permission will only come if MGA pays licensing fees. MGA will have to pay Mattel some percentage of the price of every Bratz doll imported into the U.S. In perpetuity.

Or MGA will have to abandon the U.S. market.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/gnhvm

"CBP enforces laws relating to the protection of trademarks and copyrights. Articles that infringe a federally registered trademark or copyright or copyright protected by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works are subject to detention and/or seizure. Infringing articles may consist of articles that use a protected right without the authorization of the trademark or copyright owner or articles that copy or simulate a protected right.

Articles bearing marks that are counterfeit or inappropriately using a federally registered trademark are subject to seizure and forfeiture.The importation of articles intended for sale or public distribution bearing counterfeit marks may subject an individual to a civil fine if the registered trademark has also been recorded with CBP. Articles bearing marks that are confusingly similar to a CBP recorded registered trademark , and restricted gray market articles (goods bearing genuine marks not intended for U.S. importation for which CBP granted gray market protection) are subject to detention and seizure."

[Lilly06]

Its pure greed.

[LiberalBuzz]

The sad thing about this is Bryant had presented the Bratz line to Mattel while working there.

They turned it down but for some freaking reason the law says if the idea came up while he was employed at Mattel they are the owner's to some degree.

That just plain sucks. They turned it down so he went else where.

Mattel sure makes some dumb decisions lately. Yeah they still make money but they could be making more.

[YunekFlava]

Culture seems to be the new green economy.

[mediamarv]

Grown men getting all worked up over dolls that don't even resemble the blonde trashy one. What's her name again....??