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A comment on The Man Who Became a Billionaire Through His Fight to the Death With Barbie.

Re:The Man Who Became a Billionaire Through His Fight to the... by thaumasiotes on Sunday November 03, 2013 @12:23AM (#6662219)
> Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker, fired the first salvo, suing MGA in 2004 . It alleged that designer Bryant had conceived of Bratz while on its payroll and accused MGA of bribing and secretly hiring Mattel employees for projects on the side. MGA hit back, claiming that Mattel spied on its salesmen by masquerading as toy buyers, rearranged Barbie and Bratz displays at Wal-Mart and other stores and paid off retailers to favor Barbie over Bratz.

Is it too much to wonder "why is any of that described conduct even legally questionable?"?

I mean, say you're Mattel and you have a nasty, exclusive, NDA-ridden contract with some key employees. MGA surreptitiously hires those employees for side projects. Obviously, you can have a cause of action against the employees. But against MGA?

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Re:The Man Who Became a Billionaire Through His Fight to the... by byoung2 on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:12AM (#6663232)
I mean, say you're Mattel and you have a nasty, exclusive, NDA-ridden contract with some key employees. MGA surreptitiously hires those employees for side projects. Obviously, you can have a cause of action against the employees. But against MGA?

Mattel believed that it owned the rights to designs created by its employees, and Carter Bryant was an employee. Another company profits from the design Mattel believes it owns, so they sue the company.

Mattel produced evidence that Bryant used Mattel resources and time, and even got other employees to help with the design.

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Re:The Man Who Became a Billionaire Through His Fight to the... by thaumasiotes on Sunday November 03, 2013 @10:07AM (#6663387)
Urgh... I could grudgingly accept that that argument could be a legal reason for MGA to turn over the design to Mattel. I see no reason for Mattel to be able to recover damages from MGA, who didn't do anything wrong, rather than from Bryant.

The counterclaims are even worse.

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