TRADEMARKS - 30-year old conversations and Mattel's rights

But as the new film is being developed, out came Glut, a former freelancer for Western Publishing Company, who according to Mattel, was hired in 1981 to write a "backstory" for the characters in what was then the company's new boys' brand. Three decades later, the nature of Glut's working relationship became the focus of the lawsuit.

Eriq Gardner discusses Mattel's legal victory.



Per Gardner:

But Mattel's lawyers including Larry Iser at Kinsella Weitzman were able to rebut this by framing the dispute as one over ownership. If Glut's comics were created as a work-for-hire, Mattel said, Glut never owned the copyright, could never have licensed it and therefore couldn't have terminated it. Given Mattel's exploitation of the brand over the years, Glut could have filed a lawsuit earlier.