Barbie beatz Bratz, lawsuitz beatz dollz, salez beatz dollz

It’s like the perpetual Ro-sham-bo. The gist, summed up: there’s been a legal battle between Mattel and MGA over copyright violation and breach of contract over the Bratz dolls, originally developed by Carter Bryant while working at Mattel. Judgment has been made, and if left to stand, means that MGA has to stop making all Bratz products after the end of the year.

So, what’s a Bratz doll? Simply put, it’s a doll that feels that noses are facial deformities. They’re like pouty-lipped, apathetic looking emo girls, but made trendy and in high heels. Think of them like little plastic strumpets. Strumpets that will eat your soul.

But are they gone for good? With their vast, predatory eyes? Perhaps, perhaps not. A few thoughts after the cut.

On the one hand, if they were developed by a Mattel guy at Mattel and on Mattel’s clock, then that work belongs to Mattel. Computer programmers face the same sorts of issues. They know that if they have any side projects they might ever want to sell, unless specifically allowed in an employment contract, you only do that stuff while at home, on your own equipment, and do not use anything that could be construed as having been derivative of work you do for your employer.

But on the other hand, this is a pretty big, profitable market, this will affect a lot of licensees, promotions, and all that stuff. They couldn’t have taken care of this in 2001? They waited until there was a big market and until after Barbie sales could be demonstrated to flag? It’s also just another example of suing someone out of the way. Clearly little girls aren’t as interested in Barbie anymore, and you’re not going to force them to be, especially not like this. If children’s tastes are different now, you have to adapt to them to keep selling strong. You have to change and adapt, or your business model is dead anyway. So they were able to push this off, but what about the next thing where they don’t have a legal claim? What if they lose on appeal? You can only get away with litigation for so long if your business model doesn’t work anymore.

Culturally, yeah, these things are probably not so good, but I’d argue they’re no worse than Barbie for creating/reinforcing image problems for little girls, just different. And either way, just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I’m gonna crusade to get them off store shelves. They’ve a right to make them and others have a right to buy them. If it’s not this, it’s going to be something else. When Paris Hilton starts a doll line, we’ll see how wholesome those will be, but I’m sure they’ll be ridiculously popular.

Of course, sometimes I just get funny about the analysis of random business practices.