Barbie update

Remember the Barbie v. "Barbie Girl" case filed -- and discussed on this list -- last September?

The U.S. District Court in L.A. recently denied a preliminary injunction in Mattel's case against MCA, the label that released the song and music video "Barbie Girl" by the Danish band Aqua.

The March 15 edition of the Chicago Tribune included the following language from Judge Byrne's 33-page ruling:

"Even if the song were considered vulgar as Mattel purports, it is a parody of the 'party girl' image Barbie may already have among some members of the general public... Absent stonger evidence that the song actually tarnishes Barbie's image, plaintiff is unlikely to succeed on its trademark dilution claims."

Does anyone know more about this ruling? Is it available anywhere on the web?

And does this case include any copyright claims? From what I recall, the members of this list seemed to think that it did not, as the trademark claims were more viable. Newspaper articles frequently stated that Mattel was asserting copyright claims, but the journalists could have been confused. Consider, for example, that on September 12 the Wall Street Journal reported that "Ms. McShane [Mattel's senior attorney] says any commercial use of the Barbie trademark constitutes a copyright violation." (Similar conflation of IP laws is found in the March 25 Washington Post article "Protecting Barney's Image From Bogus Beasts." Describing the claims against costume shops, the article reported that "some patent lawyers said Barney's owners probably have a good case.")

Thanks!

Maureen Cohen
GULC School of Law '98
<cohenm1[_at_]bulldog.georgetown.edu> Received on Sat Mar 28 1998 - 07:09:53 GMT