Illume/CLS - Orly Lobel, SJD: "You Don’t Own Me"
Date and Time
Monday, September 17, 2018
This event occurred in the past
- Monday, September 17, 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location
Saints Tekakwitha and Serra Hall, 200, Humanities Center
5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110Cost
0
Details
In this riveting tale of the battle between toymakers, Law professor Orly Lobel exposes a pervasive ongoing war that occurs in all industries: the war over who owns ideas. When Carter Bryant began designing what would become the billion-dollar line of Bratz dolls, he was taking time off from his job at Mattel, where he designed outfits for Barbie. Later, back at Mattel, he sold his concept for Bratz to rival company MGA. Lobel reveals the colorful story behind the ensuing decade-long court battle. This entertaining and provocative work pits audacious MGA against behemoth Mattel, shows how an idea turns into a product, and explores the two different versions of womanhood, represented by traditional all-American Barbie and her defiant, anti-establishment rival―the only doll to come close to outselling her. In an era when workers may be asked to sign contracts granting their employers the rights to and income resulting from their ideas―whether conceived during work hours or on their own time―Lobel’s deeply researched story is a riveting and thought-provoking contribution to the contentious debate over creativity and intellectual property. The story exposes our most important frontiers: consumer psychology and marketing, corporate ethics and competition, how corporations and courts shape our gender and race relations, and how we create culture. You Don’t Own Me: How a Decadelong Court Battle Exposed Barbie’s Dark Side and How Society Creates and Control Culture has received several book awards as well as rave reviews from the Financial Times (“a page-turner”), the Wall Street Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, Publisher’s Weekly, the New Yorker, NPR and many more.