National Briefing
A jury ruled that MGA Entertainment, maker of the popular Bratz dolls, won't have to pay punitive damages to rival Mattel.
(Mga Entertainment Photo Via Associated Press)
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LEGAL
Mattel Wins $100 Million Award
A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages in a copyright lawsuit that pitted the house of Barbie against MGA Entertainment, the maker of the popular Bratz dolls.
MGA and its chief executive, Isaac Larian, were told to pay a total of $90 million in three claims related to Mattel's employment contract with designer Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept. The jury also ordered MGA, Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong to pay a total of $10 million for copyright infringement.
The amount fell far short of the $1.8 billion that Mattel attorneys had demanded in their closing arguments. In a victory for MGA, the jury did not award any punitive damages and found that neither Larian nor MGA acted willfully when they employed Bryant, a finding that could have dramatically increased the damages.
U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson will now consider the awards and make a final decision on how much MGA owes Mattel. MGA said it plans to argue that some of the awards are duplicative, and Larian said he would appeal.
LABOR
ArcelorMittal Faces Possible Strike
The United Steelworkers union has asked more than 14,000 of its members at facilities run by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, to allow it to call a strike if ongoing contract negotiations fail.
The Pittsburgh-based labor union said in a notice distributed at 14 plants nationwide that a "lack of progress" in the talks, which began four months ago, prompted the strike authorization vote scheduled for today.
The union has been negotiating with Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal on behalf of the workers and tens of thousands of retirees. The current contract is set to expire Sept. 1.
Boeing Revises Offer to Union
Boeing, in the last week of talks before the contract with its largest labor union runs out, proposed lifting machinists' compensation by $28,000 over three years, a 17 percent jump from its prior offer.
Boeing dropped its effort to switch new hires into a 401(k)-style savings program instead of the current defined-benefit pension plan, removing what the union had termed a "strike issue" from the table. Workers would get raises of 9 percent spread out over the contract, according to a memo from lead Boeing negotiator Doug Kight.
"It's an outstanding offer and we think employees will appreciate that," Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said the revised proposal "is still far below the expectations of our members."
