Legal News

Mattel Asks Jury for $2 Billion in Damages Phase of Barbie-Bratz Trial

By Dan Slater

With the contentious motion for mistrial behind them, the lawyers in the Barbie-Bratz doll-fight went toe-to-toe yesterday in Riverside, Calif., serving up their closing arguments in the damages phase of the trial.

Quinn Emanuel’s John Quinn, repping Mattel, wasn’t shy. He asked the jury for $2 billion for stealing the conceptual drawings of the Bratz doll — at least $1 billion in Bratz profit and interest, and another nearly $800 million for the complicity of MGA’s CEO, Isaac Larian. Click here for a report on the closings from the L.A. Times.

Quinn reportedly said MGA had never had a hit toy and had lost more than $6 million in 2000, the year before the Bratz dolls and their midriff-baring outfits came on the market — the implication being that the Bratz line has accounted for MGA’s success ever since.

“In history, there have only been two successful fashion dolls — Barbie and Bratz — and Mr. Larian and Mr. Bryant stole one of those,” said Quinn, in the latter case referring to Bratz designer Carter Bryant who previously worked for Mattel. “The numbers are what they are . . . and the law says when you profit by taking someone else’s confidential information, you have to give it back.”

MGA’s attorney, Skadden’s Tom Nolan, reportedly told jurors to make the distinction between the concept drawings and the final toys on store shelves. MGA made crucial decisions about the Bratz look that weren’t included in Bryant’s specs, he said. “The evidence is uncontroverted that the drawings portray older, edgier, sexier dolls,” he said. “The eyebrows were way too aggressive, the lips way too pronounced, the face way too harsh. What [MGA] made is a prettier doll that could compete.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 21, 2008 (boomark / email).