Toymaker may sue over 'Bondage Barbie'

US toymaker Mattel can sue a British dollmaker who turned squeaky-clean Barbie into an X-rated “Dungeon Doll” – but is unlikely to win the breach-of-copyright action, a judge has said.

US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain based her findings on arguments made by Mattel and the defendant, Susanne Pitt, who communicated from her home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, with two letters and two e-mails.

The judge’s November 1 ruling permitted a lawsuit filed by Mattel against Pitt to go forward but said there did not appear to be the kind of evidence in the record for the toymaker to win.

The El Segundo, California-based company says it is trying to stop Pitt from further infringing on its copyrights and seeks more than €10,000 in statutory damages and €1,350 in legal fees.

“We are committed to vigorously protecting our established trademarks, which includes Barbie,” Mattel spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni said yesterday.

The judge, referencing an advertised description of the partly-nude doll in “lederhosen-style Bavarian bondage dress and helmet in rubber with PVC-mask”, wrote that the Dungeon Doll was “quite different from that typically appearing on Mattel’s products for children”.

“It appears that there is a slim-to-no-likelihood that ‘Dungeon Dolls’ would serve as a market substitute for Barbie dolls,” she said. “The sale or display of ‘adult’ dolls does not appear to be a use Mattel would likely develop or licence others to develop.”

Such a parody appeared to pose no threat to Mattel’s sales of Barbie dolls and thus did not seem to violate the company’s copyright, the judge concluded.

In her written correspondence, Pitt defended her unusually costumed and painted doll, with a SuperStar Barbie head, which was featured in a sexually-explicit story on a website that offered various sexual paraphernalia and Dungeon Dolls for sale.

Pitt argued that Barbie was frequently subjected to parody and satire but that Mattel did not distinguish “between social commentary and commercial exploitation” in its enforcement efforts.

She said she stopped offering the dolls when Mattel complained and she notified the court on October 2, 2001, that her website was closing due to her financial difficulties.