Judge Orders Bratz Dolls to be Banned

The collective pout on the lips of Jade, Cloe, Yasmin and Sasha is about to become even more pronounced.
STOP PRESS : California judge orders company to stop making Bratz dolls

Ruling sends shockwaves through toy industry as peak holiday shopping time arrives

A judge in California ruled late on Wednesday that the makers of Bratz, the attitude-laden teenage dolls that exposed Barbie as a square, must immediately stop making the hit toy and recall its models from shop shelves in the new year.

The ruling sent shockwaves through toyland as the industry gears up for its busiest time of the year. In June, sales of Bratz in the US reached $3.1bn (£2.1bn) since their launch in 2001. Sales of Barbie, still America's most popular toy, fell by 15% in 2007.

The ruling comes three months after Mattel, the makers of Barbie, won a copyright case in which it argued that the Bratz concept had been developed by one of its designers. A jury agreed that Carter Bryant had come up with the original designs while at Mattel and had taken them to MGA, which launched the Bratz line in 2001. The jury awarded Mattel $10m for copyright infringement and $90m for breach of contract.