Ex-Mattel Doll Designer Countersues

A former Barbie doll designer who was sued by toy maker Mattel Inc. for allegedly working for a competitor while still employed by Mattel has fired back with his own lawsuit.

According to the latest suit, Carter Bryant worked in the 1990s designing fashions and hairstyles for Barbie and related dolls. He left the company for a period of several months in 1998 and conceived what eventually became a competing doll line called Bratz.

When Bryant returned to Mattel in January 1999, he was required to sign an agreement that he now claims unlawfully sought to declare any designs or concepts he might create while employed by Mattel to be property of the company, according to the suit filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“Bryant was not advised that Mattel would attempt to claim ownership of any invention he may have conceived prior to employment by Mattel and perfected after he left Mattel,” said his attorney, Robert Millman.

Bryant seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and a court order to void his agreement and any similar agreements covering other Mattel employees.

Calls to Mattel were not immediately returned Monday. The El Segundo-based company sued Bryant in April for breach of contract.

Mattel has seen its share of the fashion doll market suffer from competition by the urban-styled Bratz line by MGA Entertainment Inc. Bryant, who lives in Springfield, Mo., claims that Mattel is trying to “hijack” Bratz, which Bryant claims he did not take beyond the idea stage until after he left the company.

Bryant left Mattel for the second time in fall 2000 and immediately went to work on a freelance basis for MGA, where he still works, Millman said.