Legal Battle Over Bratz Designs Comes to a Close

Following up on a story we covered from a little while ago, and one we’ve loved checking in on from time to time, it looks like the road has come to an end in the Mattel v. MGA Entertainment case. Just before the weekend, the jury in the case returned and gave their ruling that Carter Bryant did in fact design Bratz, the series of popular dolls, while working on Mattel’s dime, which was contrary to what he and his new employer, MGA, were claiming. So what does that all mean? Well, with sales of the dolls in the billions of dollars, it looks like MGA will no longer be able to keep all the cash, but instead have to pay high licensing fees and lose all their exclusive rights to the product’s design. Oh, and there’s a second phase of the trial which will show what sort of damages they’ll have to pay Mattel for all these years of what’s now been deemed, essentially, copyright theft. Ouch. We can’t imagine that coming into work today was much fun at MGA, for Carter Bryant or anyone else.

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