Bratz Maker Ordered to Pay $13.2M in Video Licensing Dispute
A video game publisher has won a $13.2 million arbitration award against the owner of Bratz dolls, a development that could signal the potential for high-stakes litigation involving the video game industry.
Ubisoft Entertainment obtained the award in a licensing dispute with the owner of the Bratz doll copyright, MGA Entertainment. Ubisoft’s law firm, Greenberg Glusker, charged in a press release that that MGA sought to renegotiate the license on pretextual grounds as Bratz dolls grew in popularity.
Stephen Smith of Greenberg Glusker told the Recorder that large awards are rare in arbitration. “It’s accepted knowledge in the legal community that arbitration is usually smaller awards, more tempered, and not the big awards you get in front of a jury,” he told the publication. “This award breaks that mold.”
Another Ubisoft lawyer, Dale Kinsella of Kinsella, Weitzman, Iser, Kump & Aldisert, said the award he has ever seen in a dispute over video game licensing. “There’s no question that the popularity of Bratz coupled with the explosion of video games fueled this verdict.”
