Copyright and Trade Dress Claims for Spoiled Brat Characters Fall Due to Failure to Show Access and Secondary Meaning

Case: Art Attacks Ink v. MGA Entertainment, 9th Cir. No. 0756110p (September 16, 2009)

The One Sentence Summary: Summary judgment against copyright and trade dress infringement claims for copying of Spoiled Brat characters by Bratz dolls was affirmed where plaintiff did not make an adequate showing of defendant's access to the copyrighted images, and where trade dress claims failed to show secondary meaning of images as identifier of plaintiff.



Ninth Circuit Holdings:

• Plaintiff must make a fact-based showing of access to the copyrighted work.
  
• Chain of events was not sufficient to show that MGA's employee had access to plaintiff's design during displays at county fairs.
  
• Summary judgment was proper against copyright infringement claim where wide dissemination of work allowing access by defendant was not shown through display of work at fair, on t-shirts and by slow website without metatags.
  
• Showing of secondary meaning by purchasers associating the designs with plaintiff was insufficient.
  
• The advertising shown by plaintiff was not sufficient to allow a jury to conclude that the designs had secondary meaning.
  
• Extensive use without showing of exclusivity of use was not sufficient to establish secondary meaning requirement for trade dress claim.
  
• Actual confusion testimony from witnesses with relationships with plaintiff's president were insufficient to establish secondary meaning for trade dress claim.