Ninth Circuit Guts Big Mattel BRATZ Victory

3. August 2010 by admin.

In a decision that surely caused Barbie’s mascara to run, Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a recent jury verdict that essentially turned the wildly popular, edgy BRATZ brand of dolls over to Mattel after finding that BRATZ was conceived by a Mattel employee.

The decision took issue with a number of decisions by the lower court, finding that the employment agreement between the employee that created BRATZ and Mattel was ambiguous as to whether the creation of BRATZ was Mattel property, and that many of the BRATZ dolls were not sufficiently similar to the early drawings and sculpts created by the artist while at Mattel for infringement to be found. In the end, the Court told Barbie to head back to the Dream House’s drawing board, and try the case again. Opinion is here: Bratz Prevail - Decision of the Court

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