Heavyweight doll fight

In this corner, John Quinn, lead partner of L.A.-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. In this corner, Tom Nolan, co-chair of the West Coast Litigation practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. When it comes to litigators, it doesn't get much beefier than this. They’re in U.S. District Court in Riverside this week, representing El Segundo-based Mattel and Van Nuys-based MGA Entertainment in the monster-sized squabble over which of the two toymakers should lay claim to the Bratz franchise. The big question: Was Carter Bryant, the designer of the Bratz dolls, still a Mattel employee when he came up with the idea? Just to give you an idea of how important this case is for the two companies, both Mattel CEO Robert Eckert and MGA CEO Isaac Larian were in the packed courtroom on Tuesday to hear opening statements. From AP:

Quinn contended that Mattel, the world's largest toymaker, owns the rights to the fashion dolls because designer Carter Bryant created the concept while employed at Mattel. "This explains how a small company that never designed a fashion doll ... was able in a short period of time to come up with a doll that became a global hit," Quinn told jurors.

[CUT]

[Nolan] argued in his opening statement that Bryant came up with the Bratz concept in August 1998 when he visited his family in Missouri and saw magazine ads featuring caricatures resembling what eventually became the Bratz dolls. "The evidence is going to be — and you can't shake it — is that it's 1998 when he does the drawings," Nolan said.

The case would have had yet another legal heavyweight, SF’s John Keker, who was representing Bryant. But Bryant settled out of court (probably bad news for MGA). Mattel is only one of a dozen or so big trials that Quinn attorneys are currently working around the nation. As we have reported, it ranked fourth in the American Lawyer's annual list of most profitable firms.