Artist’s Use of Barbie Dolls Is Protected, Judge Rules

An artist’s skewering of Barbie, the classic American princess doll, is protected free speech, a federal judge ruled Monday as he dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by toy maker Mattel.

U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew said artist Tom Forsythe was entitled to use the ubiquitous feminine icon in a photo display assailing American attitudes toward women.

In a series of photographs titled “Food Chain Barbie,” Forsythe showed nude and buxom Barbies wrapped in a tortilla, smothered with enchilada sauce, stuffed inside a blender and roasting inside a toaster.

In another picture, several Barbie heads are impaled on fondue forks inside a boiling pot.

But the photo that particularly irked the El Segundo toy maker was one showing Barbie with a food mixer blade between her legs.

Mattel’s legal papers called the photographs “crudely sexual and violently misogynistic” and accused the little-known Utah artist of infringing on the company’s intellectual property rights.

But Lew disagreed. Based on the facts, he said, Mattel could not prevail if the case went to trial.

Mattel said it plans to appeal. The company, in a statement, accused Lew of failing to take into account “that consumers do not view Mr. Forsythe’s photographs as art or as parody and that a substantial number are confused into thinking that Mattel sponsors his goods.”

The judge said there was little likelihood of any such confusion.

“This ruling shows that might is not always right,” said Forsythe, who attended Monday’s hearing in Los Angeles.

“The judge’s decision is a powerful victory for all feminists who criticize Barbie’s stereotype of women and the unquestioning acceptance that allows Mattel to sell these hypersexualized hunks of plastic into millions of American homes.”

Forsythe, who toured the country with the photo collection and sold postcards and prints over the Internet, is not the first artist sued by Mattel.

Over the years, the company has taken legal action against more than 65 artists, according to intellectual property lawyer Annette Hurst of San Francisco, who represented Forsythe on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

On the courthouse steps, Hurst accused Mattel of waging a “reign of legal terror” against artists who criticize their products.

“We are gratified that Judge Lew’s ruling recognized this important limitation on the copyright and trademark laws,” she said.

Barbie was first marketed in 1959, the inspiration of Mattel co-founder Rita Handler, who named the doll after her daughter, Barbara.

According to the company’s lawsuit, Barbie sales exceed $1 billion a year, more than 1 billion dolls have been sold to date, and the typical American girl between the ages of 3 and 11 owns two of them.

Mattel filed suit against Forsythe two years ago, spawning 25 volumes of legal briefs and related documents.