Mattel & MGA
Problems – breach of contract and copyright infringement
Mattel sued MGA and Bryant for breach of contract and copyright infringement
Bryant agreed to assign all of his “inventions” to Mattel whilst he was employed for them
He conceived the Bratz doll idea whilst employed by Mattel
Can an idea (Bratz doll) be classified as an invention that belongs to the employer?
In a contract it must be specific about who “owns” what ideas and when an invention is an
employees or an employers.
There was ambiguity in Bryant’s employment contract
MGA already put a lot of time into the Bratz doll and made a lot of money so it would be hard to
revoke their ownership rights
IBM & Apple (Papermaster)
Problems – non compete agreement (will not work for a competitor or compete with an employer)
and non-disclosure agreement. (of trade secrets)
IBM sued Papermaster for allegedly violating the terms of non-compete agreement, alleging that
Papermaster would be in a position to divulge important IBM trade secrets.
Settlement agreement: can’t work for rival for 6 months, non-disclosure agreement for 1 year after
exiting.
Microsoft and former employee
Microsoft sued a former employee for allegedly lying when applying for a job and stealing trade
secrets.
Muller stated on application that he no longer worked for Ancora Technologies and it no longer
existed meanwhile it did and he was the chief executive.
He was hired as a program manager and downloaded confidential documents onto his company
laptop – to get evidence of the infringement of his patent
He hid his tracks by deleting the files. Then, Ancora sued Dell, HP and Toshiba for using their
Microsoft technology which violated the Ancora patent.
Mullor was fired. Mullor already applied for his patent before working for Microsoft. When he was
working for Microsoft, they developed a technology which is subject to the patent lawsuit. He tried
to license the technology to them but they said no.
The Microsoft lawsuit accuses Mullor of breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and
fraud.
Problems – breach of contract and copyright infringement
Mattel sued MGA and Bryant for breach of contract and copyright infringement
Bryant agreed to assign all of his “inventions” to Mattel whilst he was employed for them
He conceived the Bratz doll idea whilst employed by Mattel
Can an idea (Bratz doll) be classified as an invention that belongs to the employer?
In a contract it must be specific about who “owns” what ideas and when an invention is an
employees or an employers.
There was ambiguity in Bryant’s employment contract
MGA already put a lot of time into the Bratz doll and made a lot of money so it would be hard to
revoke their ownership rights
IBM & Apple (Papermaster)
Problems – non compete agreement (will not work for a competitor or compete with an employer)
and non-disclosure agreement. (of trade secrets)
IBM sued Papermaster for allegedly violating the terms of non-compete agreement, alleging that
Papermaster would be in a position to divulge important IBM trade secrets.
Settlement agreement: can’t work for rival for 6 months, non-disclosure agreement for 1 year after
exiting.
Microsoft and former employee
Microsoft sued a former employee for allegedly lying when applying for a job and stealing trade
secrets.
Muller stated on application that he no longer worked for Ancora Technologies and it no longer
existed meanwhile it did and he was the chief executive.
He was hired as a program manager and downloaded confidential documents onto his company
laptop – to get evidence of the infringement of his patent
He hid his tracks by deleting the files. Then, Ancora sued Dell, HP and Toshiba for using their
Microsoft technology which violated the Ancora patent.
Mullor was fired. Mullor already applied for his patent before working for Microsoft. When he was
working for Microsoft, they developed a technology which is subject to the patent lawsuit. He tried
to license the technology to them but they said no.
The Microsoft lawsuit accuses Mullor of breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and
fraud.
