One of the more epic IP battles has come to an
end. Mattel (Barbie) and MGA Entertainment (Bratz), have spent most of a decade
in various courtrooms hashing out the ultra-serious question about which of
these companies is entitled to the Bratz millions.
I don’t understand
why the person who made bratz wants all the money for creating them, if he was
working for Barbie, then his inspiration for it obviously came from them, I think
he could at least spare some of the profits from what he made, and just working
for Barbie, he probably only gets paid like an original employee, but if he
made something for for the company that made millions, he would probably be
paid a lot more than an original employee.
Long story short, a former Mattel employee left
the company and crafted one of the first serious
threats to Barbie's dominance, the Bratz dolls. Mattel,
of course, was none too happy because the designer was still employed by Mattel
when he came up with the idea. Mattel felt it owned the idea and sued the
designer in an effort to make that a reality.
Forget everything I just said about what I thought the
creator of bratz should do. If he came up with the idea while he was working
for mattel, that means he had an idea, he could have done nothing and then Barbie
wouldn’t have done anything, but he quit before he actually pursued the idea
and created his own thing, I don’t know why mattel thinks they own the idea, it
doesn’t even make sense why they think they own it, if somebody had an idea and
made it for mattel that wasn’t that good, they would probably let them keep the
idea and let them make what they want from it, but if somebody tried to make
their own idea and it was good, and it wasn’t an idea for them, they would
claim it as theirs even though the creator no longer works for them, to me that’s
just greed.
Mattel, which had originally filed the suit,
was being hit with a judgment for $309
million in damages,
including MGA's court fees. Adding that together with Mattel's legal expenses,
and this fight over dolls put Mattel on the hook for nearly $700 million.
I think for just an idea, that is a bit much for them to
pay, I think mattel overreacted a bit when they wanted all future plans for
bratz but I don’t see any reason why they should pay so much for court charges,
the only people I think that are winning this case are the lawyers .
