Like everyone else in the Doll Industry, I am fascinated by the Mattel vs Bratz Doll case. Now I’m not a lawyer, and I didn’t sit in the courtroom, so I’m going to explain it as I understand it…
It seems doll designer Carter Bryant worked for Mattel. His job was to design dolls. He also signed an agreement that gave Mattel the rights to his designs… basically, the agreement says “we’re paying you to come up with doll designs for us; when you come up with something it belongs to us.” Mr. Bryant signed it, nobody was twisting his arm. Now it seems he takes a break from the company for a while, and claims to have thought up the Bratz idea while on that break. OK so far?
But then he goes back to Mattel, and while there, he continues to work on the Bratz Dolls designs; builds models of the doll using some Barbie parts, makes new Bratz drawings, works with other Mattel employees on parts of the Bratz designs, and then leaves.
After he leaves he sells the rights for the Bratz dolls to a company called MGA for $30,000,000 (thirty million), and MGA goes on to make an estimated Billion dollars a year selling Bratz.
Mattel cries foul, and the court agrees. Mr Bryant and MGA have done a no-no.
Now the thing that bothers me, is that in the blogosphere afterwards, so many people attacked Mattel and the court’s decision. It seems that a lot of people don’t think Mattel should have the rights to Mr Bryant’s designs. Intellectual property and the creative rights of artists and all that. Pretty nasty name calling going on. Orwellian mind control and 1984 and Gulags. And I mean lots of people.
And I just don’t get that. If I pay you to dig a hole, and you take the money, isn’t it my hole? If I pay you to design a doll, and you design a doll, isn’t it my doll? And if you willingly sign a piece of paper that says ideas you have while working for me are mine… well aren’t they mine?
In our four e-tail stores, Addie and I don’t sell either Barbies or the Bratz. Barbies are too ‘white-bread’ for our ethnic customer base, and although we applaud the ethnic skin tones and multi-cultural feel of the Bratz, they are a little too ‘slut-puppy’ for us. So we don’t have a finacial ax to grind, and thus just our 2¢.