Barbie Shows Her Fighting Side
Those upstarts Bratz have been found guilty as charged and issued with ASBO's.
Toy maker Mattel Inc, (Barbie) following a four-year legal row with MGA Entertainment Inc, (Bratz) turned out winners in the multi million dollar battle after a U.S.federal judge banned MGA from making and selling its and hugely popular Bratz dolls.
The judgement stunned the toy industry with the order that MGA must immediately stop manufacturing Bratz, although the judgement did allow MGA to wait until the holiday season ends to remove the toys from store shelves.
The decision was a huge setback for MGA, which exploded onto the doll scene in 2001 with the fashionable rebelious dolls making hundreds of millions in profits, putting Mattel and it's American icon Barbie nose out of joint.
MGA said immediately after the ruling that they would appeal the judge’s injunction, their CEO saying the company also intended to ask that the order be stayed until the appeals process is over, so that the jobs of over 1,500 MGA employee's could be protected,
The jury in the case found that Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed the concept whikst in the employ of Mattel therfore making the product the property of Mattel.
The jury also awarded Mattel $10 million for copyright infringement and $90 million for breach of contract.
Mattel had struggled to neutralize the edgey and rebelious Bratz girls for years. The dolls sporting large pouts cheeky upturned noses, almond-shaped eyes struck an affinity with young girls and MGA wasted no time spinning Bryant’s original four dolls into a family 42 characters, complete with accessories and related toys such as Bratz Boyz, Bratz Petz and Baby Bratz.
As a result Mattel has seen sales of Barbie once the icon of respectability ousted from its lofty perch by the young pretenders seeing sales drop by 15 percent in 2007.
The judge’s decision surprised many as it included all 40 dolls in the Bratz line, including the four originals, Yasmine, Chloe, Sasha, particularly as MGA argued argued that the later toys in the Bratz line did’t violate the copyright and it could continue to sell them.
The jury verdict form only asked panelists to find whether there was infringement and assign a dollar reward, but did not ask them to specify which dolls among the dozens MGA made violated the law.
Mattel attorneys said MGA made nearly $778 million on the Bratz line since it was introduced seven years ago, but MGA disputed this saying the profits were much less.