Barbie has owned the girls' posable doll market for years, until MGA's Bratz came along with their Hip Hop appearance and attitude, stomping on Barbie's clean-cut image. But the jury's still out on who really owns the Bratz design.

According to Mattel, the creator of Bratz, Carter Bryant, was under contract with Mattel at the time he created the design, even though on a leave of absence. According to his contract, anything he created should belong to Mattel. MGA is trying to garner public (and more importantly, jury) support with the David and Goliath analogy, but from this reporter's perspective, they're going to need more than sympathy to win this case.

Being a complex contract case, we'll have to wait and see how the jury will decide, and we can also be reasonably sure that it'll be a while before the case concludes, but regardless, whoever ends up with ownership, while the dolls' hem lines keep getting shorter, their supply will not. It's only a question of whose pockets your money will land in.