On July 22nd the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned almost all of a Riverside federal court judge’s rulings and jury’s findings in the $100 million Bratz v. Barbie case. Judge Stephen Larson presided over the trial which ultimately found that Mattel Inc. had the rights to the Bratz dolls produced by rival MGA Entertainment Inc.

The appeals court ruled that most of the jury instructions and conclusions reached during the 2008 trial between Mattel and MGA were incorrect. “Because several of the errors we have identified appeared in the jury instructions, it’s likely that a significant portion – -if not all — of the jury verdict and damage award should be vacated, and the entire case will probably need to be retried,” said the appellate panel in an opinion written by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. See our orgininal blog post on this topic here. 

The panel stated in the opinion“Even assuming that MGA took some ideas wrongfully, it added tremendous value by turning the ideas into products and, eventually, a popular and highly profitable brand.”   And went on to say “It is not equitable to transfer this billion-dollar brand, the value of which is overwhelmingly the result of MGA’s legitimate efforts, because it may have started with two misappropriated names.”

Wow. Talk about a difference of opinion. The trial judge and the appeals court saw this one very differently.