David Colker, Los Angeles Times 27/5/2008, 27 maggio 2008
By David Colker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 3:42 PM PDT, May 27, 2008 It was tastefully attired Barbie vs
By David Colker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 3:42 PM PDT, May 27, 2008 It was tastefully attired Barbie vs. streetwise Bratz in federal court in Riverside today as opening arguments began in a copyright infringement case potentially worth billions of dollars. The big issues: When were the Bratz dolls created? And was it in Barbie’s own house? Mattel Inc., the El Segundo owner of the long-reigning Barbie empire, charges in a lawsuit that the creator of the upstart Bratz was in Mattel’s employ as a Barbie designer when he secretly made drawings crucial to the new doll’s concept. The designer, Carter Bryant, defected in 2000 to MGA Entertainment Inc., a Van Nuys company that introduced Bratz in 2001. MGA, according to analysts, makes as much as $2 billion a year from Bratz. Mattel attorney John Quinn told a packed courtroom that MGA, which didn’t have a fashion doll in its lineup before Bratz, couldn’t have come up with the phenomenally successful product on its own. How did it "suddenly, overnight become one of the innovative toy companies in the world?" Quinn asked. "Simple. They took the designs from a Mattel designer." Mattel owns those drawings, Quinn said, and therefore a stake in Bratz, because Bryant had a contractual agreement to turn over any design "inventions" to the company while he was working there. Quinn charged that MGA knew of the contract and went to great lengths to cover up the true origins of the doll line. MGA’s lawyers will make their opening argument in the civil trial this afternoon. Mattel won a significant court victory in April when Judge Stephen Larson ruled that an agreement Bryant signed while at that company gives it the right to claim "ideas, concepts and copyrightable subject" he came up with during his employment. Last week, Mattel said it had reached a settlement in its suit against Bryant. Terms weren’t disclosed, and it’s unclear what effect that settlement will have on Mattel vs. MGA. Barbie, born in 1959, has fallen on hard times of late. In discussing first-quarter earnings last month, Mattel executives said that Barbie sales slipped 12% in the U.S. in comparison with the same period last year. MGA is privately owned and doesn’t disclose its earnings. Judge Larson made it clear that Chief Executive Isaac Larian, who was in the courtroom for Mattel’s opening argument, would have to at least reveal figures for Bratz earnings. "The bottom line is that information has to come out," Larson said to MGA’s attorneys before the jury was seated.