VERDICT | Designer at Mattel when he made rivals: jury

FROM WIRE REPORTS
Go Barbie!
Mattel Inc., the Barbie doll's maker, won a jury verdict Thursday finding that a former employee made original drawings of the rival Bratz dolls while he still worked at Mattel.

The verdict might clear the way for Mattel to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for copyright infringement from MGA. Damages will be decided in a second phase of the trial.

MGA and Bryant had argued that the designer came up with the idea for the dolls and made the original sketches in 1998, while he was living with his parents in Missouri and wasn't working for El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel.
Mattel claimed in court filings that MGA gets about $500 million a year from Bratz sales and licenses. The popularity of Bratz, first introduced in 2001, has contributed to a slide in Mattel's Barbie sales.

Barbie ruled supreme in the life of many young girls until 2001, when MGA Entertainment introduced the Bratz dolls, complete with more provocative looks and clothing. Bratz took Barbie's crown as the top-selling doll, and Barbie sales have gradually declined.

Prior to the verdict, Mattel reached an out-of-court, undisclosed settlement with Bryant, who has made $30 million in royalties off his Bratz creation.