Because litigation brings immediate rewards without any more effort than surviving shyster school (remember, on average, one out of every two lawyers in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class).

Innovation takes dedication, perseverence, the ability to connect things in ways they’ve never been connected before — in short, intelligence rather than cunning.

I was going to buy a Bratz doll. Then this lawsuit came about. Now, I think I’ll buy a Barbie.

you have that backwards.

non-compete employee agreements are rediculously one sided. I remember this fight goes back much longer than 1 or 2 years. Anyone know what the bratz creator did for mattel?

P.S. I’m glad this sunk Bratz, but hate non-competes. I wasn’t wild about little girls aspiring to be hip barely clothed hoochies. I kind of view it like an oil company squashing a blood diamond mine.

Not that I agree with this kind of contract, but they can be VERY specific. So much so that they force you to sign away rights well outside of reason. This is particularly so when dealing with the creation of a competitive product.

I seem to recall a line… “and first we kill all the lawyers…”

I thought CA passed a law forbidding this sort of thing.

I think the employee’s ideas could have been covered by the employment agreement, but the issue on appeal was that the district court erred in holding that the ideas necessarily were Mattel’s. The issue should have been presented to the jury.

From the opinion:

We conclude that the agreement could be interpreted to cover ideas, but the text doesn?t compel that reading. The district court thus erred in holding that the agreement, by its terms, clearly covered ideas. . . . . If the meaning turns in part on the credibility of conflicting extrinsic evidence, a properly instructed jury should have decided the issue.

Awesome. Thanks much.

Bryant, the creator, was a Barbie designer at Mattel. He did not just come up with the idea but presented it to Mattel. Mattel is very cautious as to what house brands are allowed to compete with Barbie. They passed on the idea. Bryant also used Mattel’s fax machine to transmit information and sketches to MGA. No one knows whether he used his actual Mattel working time to work on the Bratz concept but if he used the fax machine we know that he used at least some of Mattel’s resources, however slight. He did sign a confidentiality and non-compete. MGA knew this but went ahead anyway in conducting business.

Let’s suppose that I have some apple seeds. Someone steals the seeds and plants them. Within a few years the thief has become a major apple supplier. I find evidence of the theft. Do I have a right to get my seeds back? To get a few apples? Or to get a part or all of the thief’s apple business? Sure, he supplied the water and the land but they were my seeds!