• Wall Street Journal, Friday, July 23, 2010 9:58 AM

MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian says he cried yesterday when he found out that a federal appeals court in San Francisco had thrown out a lower court's decision that would have forced his company to turn over the Bratz line of dolls to Mattel. Carter Bryant, the dolls' designer, was under contract to Mattel when he sold the concept to MGA, as Ann Zimmerman reports, and the original finding was based on copyright infringement.

"America thrives on competition; Barbie, the all-American girl, will too,'' wrote chief judge Alex Kozinski in yesterday's ruling.

"We always believed that in the end the right thing would happen," said Larian, who was optimistic enough about prevailing that he'd manufactured a new 10-doll line that will hit shelves in October. "If I had let Bratz die and they ruled in my favor, [the brand] would have been dead," he said.

The case is not over, however. The court ruled that the original trial judge had made errors in instructing the jury and said that the case would need to be retried. "We look forward to a full trial on all of Mattel's claims against MGA," Mattel said in a statement.

Mattel, meanwhile, is set to roll out its Barbie "Mad Men" Collection in concert with the premiere of the fourth season of the hit series this Sunday. A YouTube video takes a "Behind The Scenes" look at the collaboration between the brand and the show.

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