You Don't Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side

by Orly Lobel

Overview

The battle between Mattel, the makers of the iconic Barbie doll, and MGA, the company that created the Bratz dolls, was not just a war over best-selling toys, but a war over who owns ideas.

When Carter Bryant began designing what would become the billion-dollar line of Bratz dolls, he was taking time off from his job at Mattel, where he designed outfits for Barbie. Later, back at Mattel, he sold his concept for Bratz to rival company MGA. Law professor Orly Lobel reveals the colorful story behind the ensuing decade-long court battle.

This entertaining and provocative work pits audacious MGA against behemoth Mattel, shows how an idea turns into a product, and explores the two different versions of womanhood, represented by traditional all-American Barbie and her defiant, anti-establishment rival—the only doll to come close to outselling her. In an era when workers may be asked to sign contracts granting their employers the rights to and income resulting from their ideas—whether conceived during work hours or on their own time—Lobel’s deeply researched story is a riveting and thought-provoking contribution to the contentious debate over creativity and intellectual property.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393254075
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Orly Lobel is the Don Weckstein Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and received her doctoral and law degrees from Harvard University. When a child, she starred in her psychologist mother’s studies on playing with Barbies. The award-winning author of Talent Wants to Be Free, she lives in La Jolla, California.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Carter's Angels

1 Inspired 3

2 Basura 19

3 Sugar Daddy 39

Part 2 Rewind: Building Toyland Upon Ego, Secrets, and Lies

4 Once Upon a Time, Barbie Was a German Hooker 59

5 The Psychologist Who Sold Sex 75

6 The Coldest Men in the Room 99

Part 3 Warring Titans

7 Fantasy, Meet Parody 125

8 Round 1: Titans, Ideas, and Ownership 145

9 Taming Barbie: Starring Judge Alex Kozinski as Speechzilla 175

10 Round 2: The Playground Bullies 193

11 The Jury Deliberation Room That Looked Like a Toys "R" Us 231

Epilogue: Innovation Beyond Toyland 245

Chronology 253

Acknowledgments 257

Notes 261

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

07/03/2017
The toy industry can be a cutthroat business, as Lobel (Talent Wants to Be Free) conclusively shows in this impressive account of the 10-year court battle waged between Mattel (maker of Barbie) and MGA Entertainment. The dispute began when designer Carter Bryant conceived of the sassy Bratz toy line, which became “the first doll to present a true market challenge to Barbie since her 1959 debut.” The issue: Bryant pitched the concept to MGA while still employed by Mattel, although he insisted the inspiration came to him while on leave from the latter. After Bratz became a runaway success, Mattel sued MGA for half a billion dollars. Lobel delves into the history of both companies and the backstories of various players. She also raises questions about intellectual-property litigation’s increasingly aggressive bent, which she argues poses the danger of stifling creativity and competition. A professor of law at the University of San Diego, Lobel spent years sifting through hundreds of documents and speaking with dozens of individuals related to the case. The end result is a thoroughly researched book that explains the legalese of patent, property, and copyright law in layman’s terms while providing an entertaining narrative. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Orly Lobel takes the legal campaign that Mattel, the producer of the iconic Barbie, waged against MGA, maker of the upstart Bratz, and spins it into a tale that manages both to fascinate and to illuminate how over-reliance on intellectual property law can damage, rather than aid, innovation."

Christopher Sprigman

"This book is a courtroom drama, a corporate expose, and a case study of cutthroat creativity. Orly Lobel deftly explains why ownership of ideas should belong to people, not companies."

Adam Grant

"A fascinating, insightful, and accessible book with relevance for entrepreneurship and business in general, for copyright law and the legal profession as a whole, for individual success and the success of our economy. It is both pleasure reading and mandatory reading."

Tal Ben-Shahar

"It’s a big, complicated story . . . [but] Lobel doesn’t dumb the story down; she explains its complexities clearly and even elegantly. An outstanding business book."

Booklist (starred review)

"A thrill ride through backstabbing competition, business strategies, and the marketing of the American icon Barbie. Who knew intellectual property law could be such a page turner? An amazing story and a great read."

Jonah Berger

"Orly Lobel’s gripping You Don’t Own Me has all the ingredients of a great story: an upstart hero, an underdog that takes on a powerful top dog, and a string of unpredictable twists and turns that reveal how corporations and the courts determine who owns creative ideas. This is an important and insightful book that’s sure to inspire a heated debate."

Adam Alter

2017-09-24
Exploring the little-known battle for the Barbie doll empire.Lobel (Law/Univ. of San Diego; Talent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids, and Free Riding, 2013) bases much of her exposé on the arduous, decadelong copyright infringement litigation in which toy giant Mattel became embroiled in 2000. In 1998, creative artist Carter Bryant, who, after years of employment with Mattel, a company he believed to be "political, risk averse, and stuck in the past," took time off hoping to reignite his inspiration. After seven months in his rural Missouri hometown, the idea for four sassy, edgy, urban dolls was born and then shelved in favor of the steady income Mattel provided. Bryant's motivation returned, and using discarded doll parts and clothing scraps, he created rough doll mock-ups and pitched them to Mattel rival MGA Corporation and its competitive CEO and founder Isaac Larian, who immediately greenlighted the project. The massive success of the brazen Bratz line was enough to eventually dethrone the milquetoast Barbie doll. In her crisp narrative, the author pauses to ponder Mattel's notorious litigiousness and Barbie's iconic history, which is illuminating and contains some eyebrow-raising factoids—e.g., 1965's Slumber Party Barbie came equipped with a diet book (first rule: "Don't eat!") and immovable scale set at 110 pounds. The epic trial between these two toy titans spanned a decade and became a dizzying, ego-driven melodrama. Lobel's research is representative of how cutthroat the toy industry can be, a fact that may surprise readers unfamiliar with Mattel's long struggle to recoup Barbie's image ("ice queen doll") as it became replaced by customer fascination with the "modern, voluptuous, multiethnic" Bratz dolls. The author, whose mother is a renowned psychology professor, recognizes the "toy world's grip on society," and she bolsters her investigation with interviews and testimonials from attorneys, jurors, esteemed Judge Alex Kozinski, executives at both Mattel and MGA, and a barrage of financial reports and court documents.An aggressively researched toy story on the "doll-eat-doll world of litigation over inspiration."

Kirkus Reviews