Lawyer Barbie Takes Rival Bratz to Court
Dollmaker Mattel is taking legal action against MGA, claiming it owns the copyright of rival's designs
It had to come to this eventually. When Barbie's tranquillity was shattered seven years ago with the arrival of four sassy rivals with pouting lips, pug noses and stumpy legs it was only a matter of time before the world's most famous doll dropped her perma-smile, rolled up her sleeves and let the cat fight begin.
What a cat fight it is turning out to be. Later this month, in a courtroom in Riverside, California, Barbie will go head to head with her nemeses, that streetwise gang of four known as Bratz. At stake is not just the future of the multibillion-dollar doll market, but also the ownership over images of femininity that influence the imaginative lives of millions of girls around the world.
This week a federal judge in California gave permission for a trial. When it starts, probably on May 27, a jury will hear claims from Mattel, the makers of Barbie, that it owns the copyright of the Bratz designs, which were created, it claims, by an employee and smuggled to a rival, MGA Entertainment.
For more than 40 years from her birth in March 1959, Barbie had a virtual monopoly on the image of womanhood presented to girls as young as four. She was slender, with an hourglass figure, immaculate grooming and the bearing of a graduate of a Swiss finishing school. The most rebellious she ever got was to shout out: "Pizza party anybody?"
Then in around 2000 a toy designer called Carter Bryant came up with an idea that at the time was revolutionary: an alter-ego set of dolls that represented everything that Barbie was not.
Where Barbie wore flowing dresses that revealed ankles and arms, Chloe, Sasha, Jade and Yasmin bared their midriffs and sported mini-skirts so short they would make the owner's parents weep.
In a strange echo of Barbie's difficult beginnings, the newcomers very nearly failed to get off the ground. When the idea of Barbie was floated in the 1950s, Mattel's directors were not enthusiastic and it took years to persuade them.
When Bryant took his sketches of Bratz to MGA's chief executive, Isaac Larian, he was initially unimpressed, finding them unsightly. Then his 11-year-old daughter happened to walk into his office and instantly expressed her delight, and the rest is history.
Since their launch in June 2001, Bratz have stormed into the market previously dominated by Barbie. More than 150m of the saucy dolls have been sold globally, with $2.5bn (£1.27bn) taken at the tills each year. Which is all very painful for Mattel executives. In November 2006, they launched legal action accusing MGA and Bryant of copyright infringement.
"He concealed his Bratz work from Mattel and wrongfully sold Bratz to MGA while he was a Mattel employee," court papers say. No precise figure has been mentioned, but Mattel is seeking millions of dollars in compensation.
MGA's Larian counters that the lawsuit is the product of Mattel's desperation. "The facts are on our side and we are confident we will prevail at trial. MGA, through its hard work, innovation and marketing, created and built Bratz - and no one else," he said.
The firm, which is also based in California, waved in front of the court this week internal Mattel documents from 2003 and 2004 that MGA claims expose the state of near panic that Barbie's makers were in. The documents refer to Barbie as a "brand in crisis" and say a "rival-led Barbie genocide rapidly grows".
According to MGA, the papers reveal Mattel was planning a ruthless response to Bratz by "litigating [MGA] to death". "This is war and sides must be taken."
The firm will argue to the jury that it was only after Bratz began seriously to eat into Barbie's profits that Mattel contemplated legal action.
Head to head
Barbie
Date of Birth March 9 1959 Height 11.5 inches (29cm) Parent Mattel Full name Barbara Millicent Roberts Male company Ken Carson, her paramour since 1961 Worst vocal utterances "I love shopping!" and "Will we ever have enough clothes?" (Teen Talk Barbie, 1992) Other lines Hispanic friend Teresa and African American friend Christie Bratz
Date of birth June 2001 Parent MGA Entertainment Height 10 inches (25cm) Main characters Chloe, Sasha, Jade and Yasmin Male company Bratz Boyz Worst abuse of language The Bratz toy pet accessories, Petz. It includes Catz, Dogz and Foxz. Other lines: Lil' Bratz, the diminutive version; Bratz Lil' Angelz: newborn babies with their own equally newborn pets
What a cat fight it is turning out to be. Later this month, in a courtroom in Riverside, California, Barbie will go head to head with her nemeses, that streetwise gang of four known as Bratz. At stake is not just the future of the multibillion-dollar doll market, but also the ownership over images of femininity that influence the imaginative lives of millions of girls around the world.
This week a federal judge in California gave permission for a trial. When it starts, probably on May 27, a jury will hear claims from Mattel, the makers of Barbie, that it owns the copyright of the Bratz designs, which were created, it claims, by an employee and smuggled to a rival, MGA Entertainment.
For more than 40 years from her birth in March 1959, Barbie had a virtual monopoly on the image of womanhood presented to girls as young as four. She was slender, with an hourglass figure, immaculate grooming and the bearing of a graduate of a Swiss finishing school. The most rebellious she ever got was to shout out: "Pizza party anybody?"
Then in around 2000 a toy designer called Carter Bryant came up with an idea that at the time was revolutionary: an alter-ego set of dolls that represented everything that Barbie was not.
Where Barbie wore flowing dresses that revealed ankles and arms, Chloe, Sasha, Jade and Yasmin bared their midriffs and sported mini-skirts so short they would make the owner's parents weep.
In a strange echo of Barbie's difficult beginnings, the newcomers very nearly failed to get off the ground. When the idea of Barbie was floated in the 1950s, Mattel's directors were not enthusiastic and it took years to persuade them.
When Bryant took his sketches of Bratz to MGA's chief executive, Isaac Larian, he was initially unimpressed, finding them unsightly. Then his 11-year-old daughter happened to walk into his office and instantly expressed her delight, and the rest is history.
Since their launch in June 2001, Bratz have stormed into the market previously dominated by Barbie. More than 150m of the saucy dolls have been sold globally, with $2.5bn (£1.27bn) taken at the tills each year. Which is all very painful for Mattel executives. In November 2006, they launched legal action accusing MGA and Bryant of copyright infringement.
"He concealed his Bratz work from Mattel and wrongfully sold Bratz to MGA while he was a Mattel employee," court papers say. No precise figure has been mentioned, but Mattel is seeking millions of dollars in compensation.
MGA's Larian counters that the lawsuit is the product of Mattel's desperation. "The facts are on our side and we are confident we will prevail at trial. MGA, through its hard work, innovation and marketing, created and built Bratz - and no one else," he said.
The firm, which is also based in California, waved in front of the court this week internal Mattel documents from 2003 and 2004 that MGA claims expose the state of near panic that Barbie's makers were in. The documents refer to Barbie as a "brand in crisis" and say a "rival-led Barbie genocide rapidly grows".
According to MGA, the papers reveal Mattel was planning a ruthless response to Bratz by "litigating [MGA] to death". "This is war and sides must be taken."
The firm will argue to the jury that it was only after Bratz began seriously to eat into Barbie's profits that Mattel contemplated legal action.
Head to head
Barbie
Date of Birth March 9 1959 Height 11.5 inches (29cm) Parent Mattel Full name Barbara Millicent Roberts Male company Ken Carson, her paramour since 1961 Worst vocal utterances "I love shopping!" and "Will we ever have enough clothes?" (Teen Talk Barbie, 1992) Other lines Hispanic friend Teresa and African American friend Christie Bratz
Date of birth June 2001 Parent MGA Entertainment Height 10 inches (25cm) Main characters Chloe, Sasha, Jade and Yasmin Male company Bratz Boyz Worst abuse of language The Bratz toy pet accessories, Petz. It includes Catz, Dogz and Foxz. Other lines: Lil' Bratz, the diminutive version; Bratz Lil' Angelz: newborn babies with their own equally newborn pets
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