Supreme Court rejects fight over Barbie doll
Washington ? Toymaker Mattel lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday over a mocking pop song that called the iconic fashion doll Barbie a “blonde bimbo.”
The high court did not comment in turning down Mattel’s request to reopen a trademark fight over the 1997 dance hit “Barbie Girl.” Mattel claims the preteen girls who buy Barbie dolls were duped into thinking the song was an advertisement for the doll or part of Mattel’s official line of Barbie products.
The song, by a Danish group called Aqua, includes the lyrics, “I’m a blonde bimbo in a fantasy world/Dress me up, make it tight, I’m your dolly.”
Mattel Inc., which gets $1.5 billion or more annually in Barbie sales, complained that an advertisement for the song ran during cartoons and that MCA Records Inc. even wanted to sell the recording at toy stores.
Ad materials for the song used the same electric pink that Mattel has used to package Barbie dolls for decades, lawyers for Mattel claimed.