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Barbie maker asks court to ban toy by rival MGA
By Edvard Pettersson
and Heather Burke
Bloomberg News
Published on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008
Mattel Inc., maker of the Barbie doll, wants to follow up a copyright-infringement victory against MGA Entertainment Inc. with a court order to seize all MGA's Bratz dolls and ban making them again.
Mattel made its case at a hearing Monday before U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside, Calif. The company seeks to counter MGA's argument that a jury found only that the first generation of Bratz dolls, which are no longer made, infringed Mattel's copyright.
''There's no clear jury verdict that these later dolls were infringing,'' said C. Dennis Loomis, a Los Angeles copyright lawyer. ''If I were a betting man, my bet would be that he won't grant a permanent injunction.''
Mattel, the world's largest toy maker, was awarded only $100 million in damages, or 5
percent of the $2 billion it sought, at earlier phases of the trial. The company has a chance to stymie MGA, the owner of Little Tikes toy company based in Hudson, with an injunction.
Privately owned MGA had $777.9 million in Bratz profits through June of this year on sales of $3.1 billion, according to a Mattel expert's testimony. MGA's expert said it was no more than $405.4 million.
The jury wasn't asked to specify which of the multiethnic fashion dolls violate the company's copyright — the first ones sold in 2001, those sold now, or all of them.
MGA says in court papers that the jury's Aug. 26 copyright verdict ''found no infringement beyond the first generation'' dolls. MGA contends the jury also said Mattel shouldn't get anything from future Bratz profits.
Mattel convinced the jury the Bratz name and characters were conceived by a staff designer, Carter Bryant, who took his work to Van Nuys, Calif.-based MGA while still at Mattel.
Getting Bratz off the shelves might not help Mattel's Barbie much even though the doll had cut into market share in the past. Sales of both slid this year in the face of new competitors such as Jakks Pacific Inc.'s Hannah Montana dolls and Mattel's High School Musical products, said Sean McGowan, a Needham & Co. analyst in New York who rates Mattel a ''strong buy.''
''This whole thing with MGA was about how to protect your own property,'' McGowan said. ''If Bratz were a tenth of how big it is and Barbie never went down, you'd still have to pursue this because a guy working for you took an idea that should have been yours, and he sold it to a competitor.''
In September, MGA's majority owner, Isaac Larian, rejected sharing Bratz revenue with Mattel as a way to settle the dispute.
''I have always said I want to settle for the sake of MGA employees and compete in the marketplace,'' Larian said in an e-mailed comment. Mattel spokeswoman Jules Andres said the company ''always has been open to good-faith settlement discussions.''
Mattel Inc., maker of the Barbie doll, wants to follow up a copyright-infringement victory against MGA Entertainment Inc. with a court order to seize all MGA's Bratz dolls and ban making them again.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 08:13 AM, 11/11/2008
may as well who can afford toys now adays
Wadsworth, OH
Posted 09:02 AM, 11/11/2008
Bratz dolls are ugly anyhow, pull them off the shelves, hey send them to China to be sold....
wait, nevermind, theres no lead in the dolls so China wouldnt want them......
Posted 08:35 PM, 01/31/2009
no dont get them off i love them i have like 100! please goverment and court dont
Posted 08:39 PM, 01/31/2009
no dont get them off i love them i have like 100! please goverment and court dont
