MGA has been selling dolls to little girls for years called Bratz dolls. About 4 years ago Mattel filed a suit against MGA to stop making a distributing the dolls since Brazt creater Carter Bryant was a Mattel employee when he created the dolls. Mattel suit for copyright infringment and breach of contract and MGA was ordered to stop making the dolls and afer the holidays, to remove them from shelves. The cute Bratz dolls were hurting Mattel's sale of the classic girls doll, Barbie since they rolled out in 2001. Last year, sales of Barbie dolls was down 16 percent while MGA was making hundreds of millions. The Bratz line stemmed from four original dolls and was expanded to include forty pout lipped beauties. A jury found that all 40 dolls were incorporated in the copyright infringment.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=161685&catid=71
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I remember this story from when it originally came about (I guess that would be about 4 years ago, according to your post). I also have several cousins with young girls that play with the "Bratz" dolls and LOVE them!! I had several Barbie dolls in my parent's basement from when I was younger and I remember asking my cousins' girls if they would like to have them. The replied, "No thanks, we don't really like Barbie, she's not cool. We like Bratz!"
From the beginning, I thought that Mattel had a case. The fact that the creator of the Bratz dolls was employed by the company that makes the Barbie doll is definately huge, but then also the fact that the dolls are so much like Barbie are another!
I guess we shall see what happens after the holidays! Thanks for the post!
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.
Los Angeles-based MGA, which no longer makes the first-generation dolls, argued that the later toys in the Bratz line don't violate the copyright and it could continue to sell them.
MGA attorney Raoul Kennedy argued that Larson had the discretion to determine which dolls violated Mattel's copyright. Mattel's attorneys disagreed, saying the court does not have the authority to interpret the jury's findings after the fact.
This is a sad case. I love these dolls. But, they should be able to create something else. It seems that they are taking it to a level that no one can compete with there line. Or worst, smaller companies can't be able to compete with larger ones. Girls love these dolls because they look more like them. Barbies are too fake. However, that was a personal opinion. The legal opinion is that the Bratz company needs to appeal. They definitely need to know more specifics. Such as what line is copyright infridgement and what line is not. I wonder what can people do to recreate the barbie doll. I don't think the two dolls are that similar. One is little shorter and the look is much different. My daughter has one of each kind. She likes bratz better because they dolls look more like her. That is what she says. The skin colors are more like her and her friends. However, I know when she was two she liked the dolls because of the facial features. Sidenote, sometime they are a little creepy to look at...there eyes kind of glow in the dark. But, that is just me. Thanks for the post. I just saw some of the dolls on sale for $5, I am off to buy one.:)
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