by Lee Stranahan
I have a nine year old daughter. She loves Barbie. I've ended up shopping for fashion doll accessories a lot more than any 43 year old man should have. So I also know all about the Bratz dolls and I don't care for them, personally. Too trashy for my taste - but this decision is a complete load of crap.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside, California, yesterday granted Mattel’s request to stop MGA from making most of its multiethnic fashion dolls that have contributed to a drop in Barbie sales since being first sold in 2001. A jury earlier found that a Mattel designer came up with the Bratz name and characters and secretly took the idea to MGA.
“Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings, and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties’ products, including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace, infringe those rights,” Larson said in his ruling.
Are some damages possibly due Mattel? Maybe, I guess. I don't like the idea that people are slaves to the companies they work for but whatever. But this is blatantly just taking out a competitor that was kicking Mattel's plastic, featureless ass. Un-American. It's a transfer of wealth, i tell you!