Artist Thomas Forsythe photographed BARBIE dolls to make an artistic point.  Mattel sued him and lost.  A District Court judge has now held that the parodic character of the work should have been clear to Mattel, whom he characterized as a ‘sophisticated entity with access to good legal rerpesentation.’  Accordingly, Mattel’s copyright claim was ‘objectively unreasonable,’ and its trademark, trade dress and dilution claims were ‘groundless and unreasonable.’  Defendant was awarded $1,584,089 in attorneys fees and $241,797 in costs.

Mattel v. Walking Mountain Products, 99-8543 (C.D. Cal  June 21, 2004)