Mattel has recently lost a legal battle over the name ÂBarbies (sic) ShopÂ, a shop which sellsCanadian leather, rubber and fetish wear. The shop is run by a woman who says that she has always been known by the name ÂBarbieÂ. This adds to a chain of trade mark infringement cases the toymaker has lost recently.
According to reports ÂBarbies Shop sells ÂCustom clothing and hot brands for bad boyz and girlsÂ.
The shop is found at www.barbiesshop.com which is run from Calgary. The owner of the shop isBarbara Anderson-Walley, who claims  that she is known simply as ÂBarbie since her days at school. ÂBarbie (thatÂs the lingerie one) has been designing clothing for some 14 years. However the website has only existed for approximately 12 months.Â
Anderson-Walley told the Sun last week after hearing that MattelÂs case was dismissed ÂThis is thrilling. As a little guy with no money, I thought I didnÂt have a hope.ÂÂ
Things went badly for Mattel when it decided to issue proceedings in New York. Its case was subsequently dismissed after it was found that it did not have jurisdiction in Canada.
Of course we cannot forget that in 2003 a US appeals court found that there was no infringement of MattelÂs trade mark when the popular doll was photographed naked and stuffed inside an oven/blended. It was merely a satire/parody.
In fact that same year the US Supreme Court refused to hear MattelÂs appeal concerning its lawsuit in 1997 over the pop hit ÂBarbie GirlÂ. In this case the record label MCA had managed to convince the court that Aqua (the band) had written a humorous track on cultural values!
