Bratz Hitz Back at Mattel

It’s football season, so apparently it’s time to trot out the old adage about the best defense being a good offense. This time in the ever-lasting Barbie vs. Bratz fight that we’ve reported on most recently here.

According to an article in Law.com, defendant MGA Entertainment, Inc. (the Bratz company), has filed a new counterclaim against Mattel (Barbie’s company) claiming racketeering and theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged corporate espionage ring.

Among the claims is that Mattel executives used fake business cards to gain access to private toy showrooms of competitors. Those actions, according to MGA, allowed Mattel to assemble an “unparalleled library” of competitors’ plans and products, including products not yet on the market.

Mattel’s lawyers are understandably dismissive, calling MGA’s filing “second-rate tactics by desperate lawyers” and indicating that the counterclaim won’t survive the pleading stage.

At first blush, although styled a counterclaim, it’s hard to see how these counterclaims relate to the case at hand concerning MGA’s stealing the idea for Bratz dolls from Mattel.