Lawsuit Against Hasbro because of Water Cuties

[TornadoTwist]

Found this article online. Might be interesting for some of you.

Source: http://norcalrecord.com/stories/510985336-toy-designer-files-suit-against-hasbro-over-my-little-pony-dolls

LOS ANGELES – A professional toy inventor alleges that she was not paid for her ideas by a toy manufacturer.

Elinor Shapiro filed a complaint on Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division against Hasbro Inc. and Does 1 to 10 alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of express written contract and breach of implied covenant of fair dealing.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges she designed a line of clear, animal-shaped dolls filled with liquid and glitter in 2012 named Wishables. These designs were created with the defendant's Hello Kitty and Littlest Pet Shop properties in mind, which the defendant did not use, the suit states. The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because her ideas were allegedly later used as part of a My Little Pony line of dolls called Sparkle Brights, Rainbow Shimmer and Water Cuties and claims the defendant has not paid her for using the information to develop them.

The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks damages of at least $75,000, damages as reasonable toy royalty, restitution and disgorgement, exemplary damages, injunction against the defendant, all legal fees and any other relief as the court deems just. She is represented by Lisa J. Borodkin of Lisa Borodkin in Redondo Beach and Howard E. King of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano LLP in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division Case number 2:16-cv-05750-FMO-JEM

[Sebby6]

It doesn't say if she was employed by Hasbro at the time, but it sounds like she was if she designed them for LPS.
In which case they can do with the designs as they please

[Taxel]

Unfortunately this kind of thing has been happening in the toy industry for decades, probably since it began to work like this. That's the risk of being a toy inventor not working for a toy company and having to pitch ideas. At least in the past your work could be kept, treated horribly (to the point of being practically destroyed or entirely lost), and you could be strung along while companies "thought it over". In the end they might just throw your stuff back at you and steal whatever ideas you had, without buying them or otherwise compensating you in any way.

I wish her the best of luck. If she wasn't paid for her ideas and Hasbro took them she deserves compensation, period. Its a horrible practice and needs to stop.

[Snapdragon]

Dang, $75k isn't even that much, considering attorney's fees are included. Hasbro better put up, it sounds like a pretty open-and-shut case here. :/

[LadyMoondancer]

I don't have enough legal knowledge or toy industry knowledge to comment on the validity of the suit.  But best of luck to her if her lawsuit is legit.

[Duenia]

I'd really like to see more information on this honestly.

If she was working for them when she did these designs then it's work for hire and Hasbro owns it.

As far as the idea - unless they made the LPS or Hello Kitty designs that would have likely been mocked up somewhere it's not a copyright infringement. And a snowglobe toy isn't really enough of a unique idea that she would likely qualify for a patent.

It sucks that they just took her idea like that, but from a legal standpoint - I don't think she's going to win. That's one of the dangers of trying to sell a company something without a patent already in place.

Protections are really limited for the creators of idea when they have to go up against a big company.

*Not a lawyer but did have to take a class on patent/trademark/copyright law

[brightberry]

I think if her design detailed more than just an idea, but actual instructions on how to do it including materials, locking mechanism and so on, she may have a case.

[LadyMoondancer]

It also depends on her contract.  Like, was there a clause in there saying all her ideas belonged to Hasbro while she was working for them?  Or was she specifically hired to work only on the playlines she mentioned?  Or was there a clause saying all her ideas belonged to Hasbro BUT she was to be given a commission payment for every idea they used?

We basically have no way of knowing these things.

[Ponyfan]

I've read through the article a couple of times and am still trying to figure out what her complaint is. Is that she designed snowglobe toys with the idea of Hasbro using them for Hello Kitty and LPS and her complaint is that Hasbro used he basic idea/design for MLP instead or is that she had created these designs and Hasbro used them without compensating her for her ideas?

If it's the first scenario I don't see where she can sue because Hasbro didn't use her ideas for the lines she wanted but if it's the second and she can prove that her Wishables prototypes were instrumental in the design of the MLP ones she might have a case. 




Ponyfan

[LadyMoondancer]

I found another article.

http://www.law360.com/articles/694830/hasbro-faces-bid-to-rein-in-pony-sales-during-ip-row

Plaintiff Elinor Shapiro sued the toy giant in April, claiming the company asked her to submit ideas for their "Littlest Pet Shop" and "My Little Pony" lines. After passing on her proposals, Hasbro began marketing toys that looked like her prototypes, she said. Shapiro’s complaint alleges breach of contract, breach of implied covenant, misappropriation of trade secrets and copyright infringement.

So, this lady is a professional toy designer.  Hasbro asks her to submit ideas for LPS and MLP.  They are particularly interested in her water-filled "Wishables."  She gives them a slideshow presentation on waterglobe toys (which I imagine would not just be "Waterglobe toys are cool!", but also technical details about how to keep the water from leaking out, etc) and also provides them with sample sculptures.  Later Hasbro uses an idea that is similar to her.   They claim they came up with it independently.  She says wow, what a startling coincidence that you independently came up with that idea that mirrors mine after asking me for advice and examining my work.

I'll be interested to see how it turns out.  It might truly be a coincidence.  Or it might not.

Edit:  In either case it's pretty funny reading sentences like "Hasbro attorney Joshua Krumholz of Holland & Knight LLP compared examples of Shapiro’s glitter-filled toys with Hasbro’s Rainbow Shimmer ponies."

Double edit:  Having read that, my impression is that she was NOT a Hasbro employee, but was an independent contractor.  In other words, she was not a salaried employee, but would have been selling individual ideas to Hasbro.  "Oh, you like the idea of such-and-such?  I will sell you the rights to use that patented design for this amount of money and/or royalties."

[Pokeyonekenobie]

It also depends on her contract.  Like, was there a clause in there saying all her ideas belonged to Hasbro while she was working for them? 

When I was working at Disney World, they had us sign a contract that stated any ideas we came up with during our employment were property of the Disney Company.  So if I had submitted an idea or design for a toy or a ride, Disney could have used it without any compensation.  It wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro has a similar clause. 

[Wardah]

I wonder if this means Water Cuties Fluttershy will definitely not happen now.

[LadyMoondancer]

I wonder if this means Water Cuties Fluttershy will definitely not happen now.

I doubt it.  They'd lose far more money from not making the toys than from paying out the lawsuit.

[Taxel]

Double edit:  Having read that, my impression is that she was NOT a Hasbro employee, but was an independent contractor.  In other words, she was not a salaried employee, but would have been selling individual ideas to Hasbro.  "Oh, you like the idea of such-and-such?  I will sell you the rights to use that patented design for this amount of money and/or royalties."

This was my impression the whole time, yeah. In situations like that its not all that rare for companies to steal ideas because what can you do? Fight it, ruin your relationship with that company, and possibly have other companies blacklist you? Not a great idea back in the day! It might not be as much of a career killer now since there are so many companies and the internet/Kickstarters/Etsy/etc help make it easier to head out on your own or with a smaller company.

[Galactica]

Well my firm actually litigates in the trademark infringement arena-  but all I can say is that there is definitely not enough information available to know what is really going on or whether she has a case or not.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro tried to cheat this woman in some way.