It was the fault or Mattel's laywers. To make their $300 or $400 million, they told Mattel there was enough evidence to prove the case. Mattel, desperately wanting to stop Bratz with this, were too trusting in their lawyers. Instead, all Mattel's lawyers did was make a bunch of accusations that appeared to fit some of the facts - as long as other facts could be carefully hid. It didn't work. Mattel should sue Quinn to get their money back.
This is what happened: Bryant came up with the Bratz concept at home in Missouri six months after quitting his doll design job at Mattel. They burned him out. Already a talented doll designer, he would sketch doll designs at home in his spare time even while working a day job as a retail clerk. He got the Bratz idea from a Steve Madden add in a fashion magazine (big head, big feet). Six months later, he was ready to go back to work at Mattel in California. Though he signed an agreement giving Mattel ownership of everything he did on- and off-the-job, he didn’t stop working on the doll he created in Missouri. He naively thought it was no big deal. Mattel didn’t pay well and a lot of people were doing work on the side. He tried to sell his original concept a month or two later to a toy company in New York. They didn’t want it. He continued to dream about someday having a doll of his own and did some work on it in his spare time, unfortunately while still employed by Mattel. A few months later he called a former co-worker and friend to see if she could help him do something with it. She led him to MGA where he quickly struck a deal. MGA told him to quit his job right away. But Bryant gave Mattel a two week notice. Big mistake. He thought he was doing them a favor by giving them two more weeks of his time to wrap up his projects. He should have left right away. Mattel used that to stab him in the back.
Mattel spent 100 million dollars on lawyers, throwing 100 wild theories at the judge and jury about all the sinister things Bryant and MGA did to hurt them. There was enough evidence to disprove all of them. But all the negativity was overwhelming. Eventually Mattel succeeded in making the judge think Bryant and MGA were evil. But the jury was pretty smart. They found that Bryant worked on Bratz while a Mattel employee and awarded 10 million dollars for infringement (out of the 1.4 billion Mattel wanted). It was a fair amount, considering Bryant did do some of the development at Mattel. It amounts to about a third of what Bryant was paid by MGA for all of his work. It is interesting to note that the jury did not give Mattel ownership of the earliest Bratz drawings. But the two weeks that Bryant stayed at Mattel after signing with MGA cost MGA 100 million in penalties.
So, Bryant did some work on the concept while still a Mattel employee. It didn’t add much to the overall idea. He made a 3D mock-up using Barbie parts. Big deal. He never sculpted anything. All the actual doll design work was all done by MGA. The dolls that eventually came to market look very little like Bryant’s original drawings. This was all clear to the jury. End of story, right? No… the judge apparently now has other ideas. If he had thought to ask the jury if Mattel should have been given all of Bratz, they would have certainly said no. Why didn’t he ask them that question? Now he wants to just hand over all of MGA’s Bratz art worth billions of dollars and freely give it to Mattel? Mattel is even supposed to get all the designs and schematics to MGA’s newest dolls just because they bear the Bratz name (Babyz, Lil’ Bratz, etc.)? Come on. Something isn’t right here.
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It was the fault or Mattel's laywers. To make their $300 or $400 million, they told Mattel there was enough evidence to prove the case. Mattel, desperately wanting to stop Bratz with this, were too trusting in their lawyers. Instead, all Mattel's lawyers did was make a bunch of accusations that appeared to fit some of the facts - as long as other facts could be carefully hid. It didn't work. Mattel should sue Quinn to get their money back.
what is really happening
This is what happened: Bryant came up with the Bratz concept at home in Missouri six months after quitting his doll design job at Mattel. They burned him out. Already a talented doll designer, he would sketch doll designs at home in his spare time even while working a day job as a retail clerk. He got the Bratz idea from a Steve Madden add in a fashion magazine (big head, big feet). Six months later, he was ready to go back to work at Mattel in California. Though he signed an agreement giving Mattel ownership of everything he did on- and off-the-job, he didn’t stop working on the doll he created in Missouri. He naively thought it was no big deal. Mattel didn’t pay well and a lot of people were doing work on the side. He tried to sell his original concept a month or two later to a toy company in New York. They didn’t want it. He continued to dream about someday having a doll of his own and did some work on it in his spare time, unfortunately while still employed by Mattel. A few months later he called a former co-worker and friend to see if she could help him do something with it. She led him to MGA where he quickly struck a deal. MGA told him to quit his job right away. But Bryant gave Mattel a two week notice. Big mistake. He thought he was doing them a favor by giving them two more weeks of his time to wrap up his projects. He should have left right away. Mattel used that to stab him in the back.
Mattel spent 100 million dollars on lawyers, throwing 100 wild theories at the judge and jury about all the sinister things Bryant and MGA did to hurt them. There was enough evidence to disprove all of them. But all the negativity was overwhelming. Eventually Mattel succeeded in making the judge think Bryant and MGA were evil. But the jury was pretty smart. They found that Bryant worked on Bratz while a Mattel employee and awarded 10 million dollars for infringement (out of the 1.4 billion Mattel wanted). It was a fair amount, considering Bryant did do some of the development at Mattel. It amounts to about a third of what Bryant was paid by MGA for all of his work. It is interesting to note that the jury did not give Mattel ownership of the earliest Bratz drawings. But the two weeks that Bryant stayed at Mattel after signing with MGA cost MGA 100 million in penalties.
So, Bryant did some work on the concept while still a Mattel employee. It didn’t add much to the overall idea. He made a 3D mock-up using Barbie parts. Big deal. He never sculpted anything. All the actual doll design work was all done by MGA. The dolls that eventually came to market look very little like Bryant’s original drawings. This was all clear to the jury. End of story, right? No… the judge apparently now has other ideas. If he had thought to ask the jury if Mattel should have been given all of Bratz, they would have certainly said no. Why didn’t he ask them that question? Now he wants to just hand over all of MGA’s Bratz art worth billions of dollars and freely give it to Mattel? Mattel is even supposed to get all the designs and schematics to MGA’s newest dolls just because they bear the Bratz name (Babyz, Lil’ Bratz, etc.)? Come on. Something isn’t right here.