“One of the more epic IP
battles has come to an end. Mattel (Barbie) and MGA Entertainment (Bratz), have
spent most of a decade in various courtrooms hashing out the ultra-serious
question about which of these companies is entitled to the Bratz millions. Long
story short, a former Mattel employee left the company and crafted one of the first serious threats to
Barbie's dominance, the Bratz dolls. Mattel, of course, was none too happy
because the designer was still employed by Mattel when he came up with the
idea. Mattel felt it owned the idea and sued the designer in an effort to make
that a reality. The trial jury awarded MGA $88.5
million in damages on its claims that Mattel employees used fake business cards
to get access to MGA’s booths at toy fairs and obtain MGA’s trade secrets. The
judge later reduced the verdict to $85 million and then doubled it by adding
$85 million in punitive damages. Carter had also awarded MGA $2.5 million in
lawyer fees and costs for its trade secret-theft claims, which was vacated by
the appeal court’s ruling together with the $170 million in compensatory and
punitive damages. The appellate panel agreed with Mattel that MGA’s
counterclaims weren’t “compulsory” in that they weren’t based on the same
underlying facts as Mattel’s trade-secret theft claims against MGA. As such,
the judge had erred by allowing MGA’s claims to be part of the case, the panel
said.” In my personal opinion I believe that MGA shouldn’t be held liable for
his own creations. I feel that it’s very unfair to create something and have
the business you work for try to take credit for it. Especially if the company didn’t
do anything to help the creation, but that’s just my personal belief.
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