Barbie vs. Bratz Victory for Mattel

Thursday, August 28, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

For nearly two years now, Mattel and MGA Ent. have been locked in a heated battle over copyright infringement claims filed by the maker of the iconic Barbie line of toys and animated features. A jury has finally ruled in favor of Mattel, though the damages to be paid are still unclear. Reports of $100 million came in yesterday, but MGA claims that Mattel was only awarded $20 million in the ruling. Barbie sales have reportedly dipped 15% since the Bratz came onto the scene.

MGA said that the jury made its award pursuant to a variety of legal claims, each based on the same damages theory, and subject to the court's instruction not to be concerned about duplicative damages. The company behind the Bratz dolls also pointed out that, during the trial, Mattel even conceded that the damages it sought were overlapping and duplicative.

MGA intends to appeal any amount of awarded damages. Still, the company’s leadership is relieved that the battle is nearing an end.

“We are pleased to have this trial behind us,” says MGA Ent. CEO Isaac Larian. “We can now concentrate all of our energies on what we do best—providing dolls and other toys that are the consumers’ first choice.”

Headquartered in Van Nuys, California, MGA manufactures toys, games, consumer electronics, home décor, stationery, sporting goods and other consumer products based on Bratz and other properties including Yummi-land, Storytime Collection, Rescue Pets, Miuchiz and Little Tikes. It also oversees production on an animated Bratz series and a number of direct-to-video Bratz toon features, which are now being distributed by Lionsgate. Lionsgate has also released a live-action Bratz feature film, and recently picked up MGA’s Little Tykes for North American distribution and initially plans to release four animated movies on home video this fall. More information on MGA is available at www.mgae.com.

Reader Comments

• Oly Scott : Character Animator : N/A

  Thursday, August 28, 2008

  Wow! why would a guy, still working for Matell go and sell his Bratz idea to a rival while still working for Matell. If this is the story it seems a pretty clean cut case. When I worked as an illustrator it was in our contracts that we couldn\'t do any freelance work that had the potential to take money away from the company I was working for.
  Surely this is the same situation and I would implement the same rules in my company, just in case anyone came up with an amazing new animated series idea.