Mattel v. MCA Records | |
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Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit |
Full case name | Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. |
Argued | December 5, 2000 |
Decided | July 24, 2002 |
Citation | 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002) |
Case history | |
Prior history | Appeal from C.D. Cal. (28 F.Supp.2d 1120) |
Subsequent history | Request for certiorari, S.Ct.; denied (537 U.S. 1171). |
Holding | |
Barbie Girl is protected as a parody under the trademark doctrine of nominative use and under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. | |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | Dorothy Nelson, Melvin Brunetti, Alex Kozinski |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Kozinski, joined by unanimous court |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend I; Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq) |
Mattel v. MCA Records, 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002),[1] was a series of lawsuits between Mattel and MCA Records that resulted from the 1997 hit single "Barbie Girl" by Danish-Norwegian group Aqua.[2] The case was ultimately dismissed.