This file product image provided by MGA Entertainment shows part of the 2010 collection of Bratz dolls. Toy giant Mattel Inc. and bitter rival MGA Entertainment Inc. are back in court in their years-long legal battle to determine who owns the right to make and market Bratz dolls. The case is being retried after an appeals court overturned a federal jury's decision that the doll's designer had developed the concept while working for Mattel. (AP Photo/MGA Entertainment, File)
The allegation came during closing arguments in the three-month copyright infringement and trade secrets trial pitting El Segundo-based Mattel against Van Nuys-based MGA, which exploded onto the toy scene in 2001 with the hip hop-inspired dolls marketed to the "tween" generation.
Mattel claims in its lawsuit that MGA conspired with Bratz designer Carter Bryant to steal the idea for the dolls while Bryant worked for Mattel.
Mattel attorney Bill Price told jurors the company that makes the iconic Barbie doll was "burned by an opportunist with no fashion doll designers" of its own.
"The case really is about transforming a company and building a brand by using another company's confidential information and ideas, and that's wrong," Price said. "If you can use another company's confidential designs and innovation, competition will die."
Attorneys for MGA were expected to deliver their closing arguments later in the day.
The company has denied wrongdoing and countersued Mattel, claiming the company engaged in unfair business practices and sent gumshoes to spy on MGA at toy fairs after realizing Bratz dolls were siphoning sales from
Mattel's flagship Barbie line.The toy giant only sued when it realized it could no longer compete, MGA alleges.
A jury awarded Mattel $100 million in 2008 and found that Bryant had developed the Bratz concept while with Mattel. But the verdict was overturned and the case sent back for retrial.
On Friday, Price told jurors that Bryant developed the idea for the sexy, urban dolls while working for Mattel in 1999 then continued to use Mattel's design studio to complete doll body sculpts, fashions and other features before he left Mattel.
MGA has countered that Bryant designed the dolls during a narrow window when he did not work at Mattel. Attorneys for MGA have also challenged the wording of an invention agreement Bryant signed with Mattel.
Both toymakers have a lot on the line in the spat over Bratz.
MGA's CEO Isaac Larian said his company has spent $150 million on legal fees and been forced to lay off 300 employees as a result of the litigation. If jurors decide Mattel owns Bratz, it could create critical problems for MGA, which built its fortune on the line targeting 9- to 11-year-old girls.
Price said in his closing argument that Mattel lost $323.7 million in profits because of Bratz.
Mattel first sued Bryant in 2004 then settled with him on the eve of the first trial for $2 million while continuing to pursue its case against MGA.
The first trial was limited to copyright issues, but this time jurors are being asked to determine the scope of Bryan's invention agreement at Mattel and to decide on MGA's counterclaims that Mattel engaged in unfair business practices.
In its countersuit, MGA accuses Mattel of using fake identification to spy on MGA at trade shows and threatening retailers and distributors who did business with MGA.
In closing arguments, Mattel attorney John Quinn said those allegations were false. Trade shows are mostly open affairs, he said, and many of the 114 trade secrets MGA accuses Mattel of stealing through spying were already public through news articles or press releases, he said.
"Their burden is to prove this, and what they've done is simply throw 114 things up against the wall," Quinn said.
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