From The Wall Street Journal:
Like Condoleezza Rice, Ivanka Trump and Michelle Obama, Orly Lobel played with Barbie dolls when she was growing up. “Fortunately,” writes the San Diego law professor in her new book, “I was also encouraged to challenge the distorted realities of Barbie’s world.”
No toy has been deconstructed so thoroughly as Mattel Inc.’s iconic plastic doll. But Ms. Lobel’s “You Don’t Own Me” is something different. The world that she explores is not a dollhouse but a courthouse. Her brisk and engaging book chronicles the decadelong copyright clash between Mattel and MGA Entertainment Inc., an upstart rival that had a mega-hit with its “Bratz” doll line but that was nearly obliterated by Mattel’s scorched-earth legal offensive. Journalists tend to overuse words like “war” when writing about lawsuits. But if ever there were an example of a civil dispute meriting military metaphors, it is Mattel vs. MGA. According to Ms. Lobel, the combined legal expenses of the battle went north of $600 million.
Like Condoleezza Rice, Ivanka Trump and Michelle Obama, Orly Lobel played with Barbie dolls when she was growing up. “Fortunately,” writes the San Diego law professor in her new book, “I was also encouraged to challenge the distorted realities of Barbie’s world.”
No toy has been deconstructed so thoroughly as Mattel Inc.’s iconic plastic doll. But Ms. Lobel’s “You Don’t Own Me” is something different. The world that she explores is not a dollhouse but a courthouse. Her brisk and engaging book chronicles the decadelong copyright clash between Mattel and MGA Entertainment Inc., an upstart rival that had a mega-hit with its “Bratz” doll line but that was nearly obliterated by Mattel’s scorched-earth legal offensive. Journalists tend to overuse words like “war” when writing about lawsuits. But if ever there were an example of a civil dispute meriting military metaphors, it is Mattel vs. MGA. According to Ms. Lobel, the combined legal expenses of the battle went north of $600 million.
. . . .
While Mattel churned out lawsuits, plucky MGA and its Iranian Jewish chief executive shook up the toy industry in 2001 with its Bratz dolls: cute, wide-eyed, large-headed new girls on the block, with ethnic identities and a sexualized, urban style that made Barbie seem like an outdated Sandra Dee. Bratz dolls drove parents crazy, but kids were crazy for them. When word got out that the dolls were the brainchild of Carter Bryant, a former Mattel designer who had defected to MGA, Mattel executives went nuclear. They alleged that Mattel was the owner of Mr. Bryant’s prototype doll-design drawings and the “sculpt” on which the Bratz dolls were based. Mattel sought monetary damages of close to $2 billion.
. . . .
The libertarian Judge Kozinski “was rather comfortable with contractual expansion over employee creativity, provided it was drafted diligently,” writes Ms. Lobel, but “he was far more suspicious of wholesale copyright protection.” In his 2010 opinion reversing the verdict against MGA, Judge Kozinski wrote that, whatever Mr. Bryant’s employment agreement with Mattel, the company “can’t claim a monopoly over fashion dolls with a bratty look or attitude, or dolls sporting trendy clothing—these are all unprotectable ideas.” MGA went on to win a retrial, then grabbed the upper hand by exposing how dirty Mattel had played, claiming (in still pending) litigation that Mattel used phony IDs and business cards to infiltrate MGA’s private showrooms. Separately, Ms. Lobel says, Mattel spied on its employees’ emails to ferret out disloyalty.
As for the broad lesson of this nasty episode, Ms. Lobel contends that the Mattel vs. MGA case underscores concerns about corporate control over individual creativity. Perhaps. But the book is more compelling as a cautionary tale for dominant companies at the top of the food chain: Don’t lean too heavily on lawsuits to deter smaller rivals rather than investing in original, fresh ideas.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal
PG says intellectual property can become extremely valuable. Be careful with yours.
This “Don’t lean too heavily on lawsuits to deter smaller rivals rather than investing in original, fresh ideas” is exactly what’s wrong with corporatism. Power and mediocrity have replaced invention and genuine competition.