Sales of Barbie dolls, Mattel's flagship brand have been declining within the US for sometime now. Most of the decline is due to the growing popularity of the Bratz range of fashion dolls. These dolls were launched by MGA Entertainment in June 2001, and quickly emerged as a serious competitor to Barbie.
Bratz was created by Carter Bryant an ex-employee of Mattel. Bryant presented his drawings to Isaac Larian the CEO of MGA Entertainment. Larian's eleven year old daughter Jasmin, who was visiting his office at that time was fascinated by the sketches, and Bratz was born.
Sales of Bratz have grown rapidly and currently stand at more than $3.5 billion annually. Most of this has undoubtedly come at the expense of Barbie. Mattel finally decided that enough was enough and have launched legal action accusing MGA and Bryant of copyright infringement. They are seeking millions of dollars in compensation.
Mattel claims that Bryant worked on designing Bratz while he was their employee.'He concealed his Bratz work from Mattel and wrongfully sold Bratz to MGA while he was a Mattel employee,' they say.
MGA says that Bryant first got the idea in 1998 while he was not working for Mattel, and that the dolls were develped by its own engineers in late 2000 and 2001. MGA claims that it is only after sales of Bratz started hurting profits of Barbie that Mattel has initiated legal proceedings. It says Mattel's claims are baseless , and plans to counter-sue for a billion dollars in damages once the current court case is over.