Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.
E709613
Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. is a landmark U.S. copyright and trademark case in which the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski, held that the song "Barbie Girl" was protected parody and did not infringe Mattel’s rights in the Barbie doll.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8067887 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. Context triple: [Alex Kozinski, notableCaseInvolvement, Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.]
-
A.
Hicklin v. Orbeck
Hicklin v. Orbeck is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Alaska’s local-hire law for violating the Privileges and Immunities Clause by discriminating against nonresident workers.
-
B.
Basic Inc. v. Levinson
Basic Inc. v. Levinson is a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the fraud-on-the-market theory and clarified the materiality standard for misstatements in securities fraud class actions.
-
C.
Lucas v. Earl
Lucas v. Earl is a landmark 1930 U.S. Supreme Court tax law case that established the principle that income is taxed to the person who earns it, regardless of contractual arrangements to split or assign that income.
-
D.
Sherbert v. Verner
Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
-
E.
Connick v. Myers
Connick v. Myers is a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited public employees’ First Amendment protections by holding that their speech is only constitutionally protected when it addresses matters of public concern rather than personal workplace grievances.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. Target entity description: Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. is a landmark U.S. copyright and trademark case in which the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski, held that the song "Barbie Girl" was protected parody and did not infringe Mattel’s rights in the Barbie doll.
-
A.
Hicklin v. Orbeck
Hicklin v. Orbeck is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Alaska’s local-hire law for violating the Privileges and Immunities Clause by discriminating against nonresident workers.
-
B.
Basic Inc. v. Levinson
Basic Inc. v. Levinson is a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the fraud-on-the-market theory and clarified the materiality standard for misstatements in securities fraud class actions.
-
C.
Lucas v. Earl
Lucas v. Earl is a landmark 1930 U.S. Supreme Court tax law case that established the principle that income is taxed to the person who earns it, regardless of contractual arrangements to split or assign that income.
-
D.
Sherbert v. Verner
Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
-
E.
Connick v. Myers
Connick v. Myers is a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited public employees’ First Amendment protections by holding that their speech is only constitutionally protected when it addresses matters of public concern rather than personal workplace grievances.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Ninth Circuit case
ⓘ
United States court case ⓘ copyright case ⓘ trademark case ⓘ |
| appliesTest | Rogers test NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
entertainment law
ⓘ
intellectual property law ⓘ |
| citation |
296 F.3d 894
ⓘ
63 U.S.P.Q.2d 1715 ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2002 ⓘ |
| defendant |
Aqua
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
MCA Music Scandinavia AB NERFINISHED ⓘ MCA Records, Inc. NERFINISHED ⓘ Universal Music Group, Inc. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | No. 99-56003 ⓘ |
| famousQuote | "The parties are advised to chill." ⓘ |
| holding |
Mattel’s trademark claims were barred by the First Amendment
ⓘ
the song "Barbie Girl" does not dilute the Barbie trademark ⓘ the song "Barbie Girl" does not infringe Mattel’s Barbie trademark ⓘ the song "Barbie Girl" is a protected parody under the First Amendment NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| industryContext |
music industry
ⓘ
toy industry ⓘ |
| involvesCopyright | Barbie-related intellectual property ⓘ |
| involvesTrademark | Barbie NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involvesWork |
Barbie Girl
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Barbie doll NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
Ninth Circuit
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
parody can be a defense to trademark infringement and dilution claims
ⓘ
trademark law does not confer a right to control language ⓘ use of a trademark in the title and lyrics of an expressive work can be protected by the First Amendment ⓘ |
| notableFor |
articulating strong First Amendment protection against trademark claims
ⓘ
defining the scope of parody protection for pop music ⓘ |
| opinionBy | Alex Kozinski NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| plaintiff | Mattel, Inc. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedCase | Rogers v. Grimaldi NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| result |
Mattel’s claims were dismissed
ⓘ
judgment in favor of MCA Records and other defendants ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
First Amendment
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
copyright law ⓘ fair use ⓘ parody ⓘ trademark law ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. Description of subject: Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. is a landmark U.S. copyright and trademark case in which the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski, held that the song "Barbie Girl" was protected parody and did not infringe Mattel’s rights in the Barbie doll.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.