Barbie v. Bratz Saga: $100M Jury Verdict to Mattel Way Below its $1.8B Demand, But Bratz Doll-Maker MGA to Push for Reduction

Holding:

As part of the continuing sage between "Barbie" doll-maker Mattel, Inc. and "Bratz" doll-maker MGA Entertainment, Inc., Mattel won a jury verdict of $100 million for copyright infringement and contract damages, an amount way below its demand of $1.8 billion. In particular, the jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered MGA and its Chief Executive Officer, Isaac Larian, to pay Mattel a total of $90 miilion in three causes of action related to Mattel's employment contract with its former designer, Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept. The jury also issued an award of $10 million to Mattel, this time against MGA, Larian, and MGA Entertainment (HK) Limited ("MGA Hongkong"), for copyright infringement. Mattel however was unable to secure an award for punitive damages, after the jury found that it failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the three defendants had acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. Part of the total award included the value of Bryant's drawings, which the jury pegged at $31,500, plus 7 percent interest calculated from the date Mattel's property was converted by MGA Hongkong.

Detailed Summary:

By way of background, the jury on July 17, 2008 found that Bryant conceptualized the Bratz character and name while he was still under contract with Mattel.  In that earlier verdict, the jury specifically found that Bryant made most of the first sketches of the Bratz characters while he was employed by Mattel in 1999 and 2000, and that Mattel owned most of Bryant’s Bratz drawings, including the three-dimensional prototypes he made for MGA.  The jury also found that that MGA and Larian were liable for intentional interference with Bryant’s Mattel contract. The jury was hung on the issue whether Mattel…

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