International Law

How Much is A Bratz Worth?

Image by JimmyMac210 via Flickr

I had been following this trademark case, between Barbie and Bratz, because I was fairly sure that litigation was the wrong move for these parties.

Mattel was incensed that its designer moved on and took his drawings of Bratz dolls with him; the designer Carter Bryant was incensed that his great ideas of Bratz dolls fell on deaf ears at Mattel, until MGA took his idea, ran with it, and improved it.

Here is the Jury award, with thanks to Gillian Flaccus

"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."

Ok, since Mattel sued for 1 billion and got 10%, and MGA suggested that Mattel was "only" entitled to $30 million, who do you think won this round?

But here is the real problem: why did Mattel not realize what a gold mine it had when it let Bryant go?

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on August 27, 2008 (boomark / email).