Bye-bye Bratz?

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U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson today ordered the recall of all Bratz dolls and products from retailer shelves and warehouses as part of the long-running copyright infringement battle between Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie, and MGA Entertainment Inc., whose edgy Bratz line has been grabbing a bigger and bigger piece of the doll market.

Don’t burst into tears yet, all you Bratz lovers out there. Larson has stayed the order until a hearing in February.

A federal jury in Larson’s Riverside courtroom decided in July that the Bratz characters were created by a designer who was working for Mattel under an exclusivity agreement. The jury also found that MGA aided in the contract breach and awarded Mattel $100 million for copyright infringement and breach of contract.

MGA, which employs more than 1,500 people, has said that losing the Bratz dolls would be ‘lethal’ for the Van Nuys company.

-- Nancy Rivera Brooks