Wednesday, December 24, 2008
By Mike Copeland
Tribune-Herald business editor
Those pouty Bratz dolls have been kicking Barbie’s behind in recent years, but whether they’ll be around after 2009 is a matter for the courts to decide.
For now, they can be found on store shelves at places like Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart and Target Greatland. But a legal Grinch is lurking to snatch away Bratz products that have become a phenomenon.
The issue revolves around two toy companies: giant Mattel and a family-owned enterprise called MGA Entertainment.
A California judge has ordered MGA to stop selling the popular Bratz dolls and banned it from using the Bratz name.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson claimed the company has infringed upon Mattel copyrights and ordered MGA to immediately stop manufacturing Bratz. He allowed MGA to wait until the holiday season ends to remove the toys from store shelves.
That means Bratz is safe, and available, through the holidays.
The ruling, issued in federal court in Riverside, followed a jury’s finding that Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed the concept for the dolls while working for Mattel.
MGA has appealed Larson’s decision and asked him to delay the injunction beyond February until the appeal is resolved.
It will fight hard to keep the rights to a Bratz franchise that produces an estimated $500 million for the company each year, company officials said.
For now, Bratz dolls “are flying off the shelves,” said Sharon Chacon, manager of Waco’s Target Greatland store. But she says that “nearly every toy is flying off the shelf” with Christmas approaching.
Chacon said the store would comply with an order to recall Bratz products, but so far none has been issued.
Bob Friedland, a Toys “R” Us spokesman, said by phone Tuesday that the chain continues to carry Bratz toys, but he could not say for how much longer.
Larson has ruled that “hundreds” of Bratz products infringe on copyrights owned by rival toymaker Mattel Inc. He also ordered MGA to recall all Bratz dolls from retailers and to destroy “specialized plates, molds and matrices used to make the dolls.”
MGA started making the dolls in 2001 and has since expanded the Bratz line to include Baby Bratz, Bratz Kids and Lil’ Bratz, as well as films and TV shows based on the line.
If this is the last hurrah for Bratz merchandise, it could become a dream for novelty collectors, said Brent Bankston, who owns a collectibles shop at 1321 S. Valley Mills Drive.
If Bratz dolls become scarce because of a court order, and if the dolls increase in demand, collectors will salivate over them, Bankston said.
“I can see that happening,” he said, “because there are a lot of collectors out there who look for these kinds of trends.”
A spokeswoman for MGA, who said she could provide information but could not be named for publication, said, “We are a privately held company, and we do not comment on sales figures.”
Sales of Mattel’s Barbie doll — once a staple of American girlhood — have slid since Bratz came on the scene. Domestic Barbie sales were down 15 percent in 2007 and 12 percent in the first quarter of 2008, while international sales increased 6 percent in 2008.
Leslie Lockett, a spokeswoman for the H-E-B grocery chain that also sells general merchandise, said the chain “stopped ordering Bratz dolls a few months ago when they became a legal issue, and we will not order any more until the matter is settled.”
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said the nation’s largest retailer will continue to carry Bratz merchandise “until the judge’s ruling, which has been appealed, is solidified.”
At the core of this feud between Mattel and MGA is Bryant, who worked as a designer for Mattel from September 1995 to April 1998 and again from January 1999 to October 2000.
He signed an agreement that gave Mattel the right to anything he designed while employed there, lawyers argued.
But Bryant testified that the sketches he showed MGA in 2000 were transferred from originals he made in the summer of 1998, between his two employment stints with Mattel.
He said they were inspired as he watched kids walking from school, Steve Madden shoe ads in Seventeen magazine and the cover of the Dixie Chicks album Chicks With Attitude.
A jury earlier this year awarded Mattel the rights to concept drawings and models created by Bryant but gave the company only a fraction of the $2 billion in damages it sought.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
mcopeland@wacotrib.com
757-5736
Comments
By Carnelian
Sep 1, 2009 2:02 AM | Link to this
Greeting. Where facts are few, experts are many.
I am from Nepal and also now am reading in English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Some people have been taken by nothing stop funds, analyst stock picks."
With best wishes :p, Carnelian.
By Briann
Aug 17, 2009 10:32 PM | Link to this
I think bratz don't need to be shutdown because 1 some mothers say bratz don't help young girls grow up ,but that's why there is bratz babyz,bratz kidz and bratz lil'angelez. 2 Bratz make all girls 5 to 10 happy all over the world and it's more funner to play with them then barbie's because barbies don't look fun or they don't make girls or boys want to play with them because they're stupid. 3 By the time they finally shutdown bratz they'll all be gone because more girls like bratz. It's not our fault nobody likes barbie anymore she's annoying we LOVE BRATZ! 4 BARBIE HAS HER OWN SONG ''I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie woorld I'm a plastic doll in a plastic boox.'' That's why nobody like nerdy wimp dummy barbie. 5 If They shutdown Bratz it's no need to sell barbie or try to make the new Mixo dolls mgae and mattel
By Bratzlover
Jul 24, 2009 7:46 PM | Link to this
This is very disaponting me and my neice love these dolls i have been playing with since i was 3 or 4 my niece started at 2.If i see them go most kids will be so sad.I have NEVER liked manttle because of that bimboish barbie evryone in my family thinks she is a flosie.Instaed of bratz going maybe barbie shoul go.
By Bratz 27
Feb 7, 2009 7:10 PM | Link to this
The bratz weren't banned because I just bought one yestarday(February 6,2009)at Target so are they BANNED?
By redbird
Jan 24, 2009 10:51 PM | Link to this
I personally will say I haven't watched a bratz movie nor will I. I remember growing up it wasn't good to be called a brat. I do not agree with they way they dress. I also agree that barbie isn't perfect either and that her image may not always be right. I remember playing with barbies everyonce in a while, it's hard when your friends were the nextdoor neighbors sons at a time when you would be playing barbie. I do not remember ever thinking, I need to look like some doll. I do not blame barbie for everyone thinking that we all have to be skinny and tall,I blame the media and how on magazines what do we see, what do you see in the news, movies. How many actresses do we see that have a normal body. We have these kids who are exposed to these movies and media that think it's cool and fun to be famous and they want to look like them, not some doll. May be Bratz do show some of the good things that are important for young girls to learn. I have to say fashion is low on my priorities for my daughter to learn about. I want her to be confident in herself image and personality. I want her to be able to be a team player who can follow and lead. So if Bratz can do that that's great but I'm still wondering when was it good to be called a brat. I was told several times to quite being a brat when I was growing up and throwing tantrums because I couldn't get my way.
By Joey
Jan 24, 2009 8:05 PM | Link to this
i think Bratz dolls are HORRIBLE! they teach our kids to cheapen themselves and to want to be "sexy" at a far to young of an age! hello they were modeled after kids walking home...probably H.S. ages and steve madden shoes from SEVENTEEN mag! i have never and will never purchase them!
By Michelle Robertson
Jan 18, 2009 6:50 PM | Link to this
Ya'll people must don't know that a lot of kids have Bratz dolls, and kids love Bratz. So if ya'll take them off the shelves many kids will be mad. And most the kids who like Bratz are black. And don't no child want a Barbie doll. Since bratz been out so long why ya'll are decidin' to take them off the shelves now, if ya'll want to do that ya'll should have took them off years ago. Bratz helps kids know what are good things to do ,and it can help your child to learn more skills. If ya'll take bratz off, ya'll will break alot of little kids hearts.
By michael
Jan 17, 2009 12:55 PM | Link to this
I want the bratz to stay and the barbies to go.
By Tammy
Jan 16, 2009 5:17 PM | Link to this
Bratz are the new thing for kids. They have come out with movies that are all about friendship and fashion, that our kids look up to they have one statement (be who you want to be).
"BARBIE" is old and to be considered a COUGAR one word for barbie
(RETIREMENT)
By quiana williams
Jan 16, 2009 8:30 AM | Link to this
i am a 8 year old and my momma is buying me a whole bunch of more because that dum mattel taking bratz off the shelves just because bratz making more money than mattel and i think bratz should of never sold they selves to mattel and this would of never happened but i will not buy a barbie again because they ugly first of all second of all they aint got no style thank you very much last but not least that to tall and big for me to play withem and by the way mattel sucks i dont like em and they taking bratz off the shelves cause they jealoes is h e double hockey stick
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