What is the story about Barbie vs Bratz lawsuit?

Question

Can you give me any information on what this is about and whats been happening

Answer 1

Hope this helps Luv :)

Judge allows Mattel lawsuit to proceed over Bratz dolls

Monday, April 28, 2008

(04-28) 11:10 PDT Riverside, Calif. (AP) --

A federal judge has ruled that Mattel Inc. can proceed to trial with claims that a former employee breached his agreement while employed by the company by doing work for rival MGA Entertainment that led to the successful line of Bratz dolls.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson said Friday that Mattel could claim rights to work done by then-employee Carter Bryant.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel, the world's largest toy maker, has seen sales of its Barbie dolls suffer from competition by the edgier, urban-styled Bratz line, which MGA launched in 2001.

MGA has denied the allegations in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

Bryant has said Mattel wants to co-opt the Bratz line, which he claims he did not take beyond the idea stage until after he left the company.

The jury trial is scheduled to begin May 29.

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I think Mattel just won the case this past week.

Take care

Cher

  

Answer 2

The short version is that the designer of the Bratz, Carter Bryant, was under contract to Mattel when he developed the idea of the Bratz. He used Mattel computers, Mattel design programs & pieces of Mattel dolls to make the prototype.

Instead of offering the concept to Mattel, he took it to Isaac Larian, the head of MGA. Unfortunately, Bryant had signed an exclusive non-competitive contract with Mattel. He falsified documents, apparently with the knowledge of MGA & claimed he didn't understand that MGA was a toy company & a rival of Mattel. Mr. Bryant may be a good designer, but he isn't very bright if he didn't realize that ANY toy company is considered competition.

Mattel sued & earlier this spring, the court ruled that the Bratz were conceived while Bryant worked at Mattel & Mattel has rights to them. This week, the jury awarded damages to Mattel, but I think it will be a long time before they collect.

MGA will most likely appeal & they can drag the court case out for years.

The moral of the story is, understand your contract BEFORE you sign it & DON'T work for one company when another is paying your salary.