That leaves Larian the winner after eight years of fighting off Mattel’s charges.
But Mattel doesn’t want to pay Larian anything and will appeal a court order that he and his company get $310 million from Mattel. That appeal will keep the case going into a ninth year.
In court papers filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, attorneys for Mattel said the company disagreed with the jury finding that Larian’s MGA Entertainment didn’t steal the idea for the pouty-lipped, hip hop-inspired dolls, but wouldn’t challenge it any longer.
“While we continue to believe that the Bratz designs … were owned by Mattel, we’ve decided not to appeal that aspect of the verdict, because we do not wish to have another lengthy trial on the Bratz claims,” Mattel spokesman Alan Hilowitz said.
However, Mattel did ask the appeals court to reverse the financial judgment entered by a judge based on a jury verdict. The award included $172 million in damages for MGA for misappropriation of trade secrets, and $137 million for MGA in attorney fees and defense costs.
Larian, the CEO of MGA, said he was pleased Mattel would not challenge the ruling on copyright infringement.
“Bratz and its ownership has always belonged to MGA and was built with the hard work and ingenuity of MGA employees,” he said. “As for the damages and legal fees award of $310 million … I am confident we will prevail upon appeal.”
The Bratz dolls were a blockbuster hit for Los Angeles-based MGA when the line debuted in 2001 and generated nearly $1 billion in sales at their peak in 2006. Bratz dented the sales of Mattel’s Barbie dolls—the first competitor ever to curtail the commercial power of Barbie.
Mattel first sued in 2004, claiming Bratz designer Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he did the initial drawings on the dolls with large eyes, heads, lips and feet, and tiny noses.
A federal jury found in favor of Mattel in a 2008 copyright infringement trial and awarded the company $100 million in damages.
The verdict was overturned on appeal, however, and a second jury last year found in favor of MGA on the copyright issue.
That jury was also asked to consider allegations in a countersuit filed by MGA that accused Mattel of sending spies to toy fairs and trade shows to steal MGA’s trade secrets.
The jurors ruled that Mattel stole 26 of the 114 trade secrets MGA listed, ultimately resulting in $85 million in damages for MGA.
The federal judge overseeing the case later awarded MGA an additional $85 million in punitive damages for trade secrets misappropriation, and MGA, Larian and the company’s Hong Kong affiliate $137 million in legal fees.
