National Business Review: Court rules on Naked Barbie: We know art when we see it

Proving once again that the Internet makes bad publicity much worse, Mattel's latest legal tangle over Barbie dolls made it online. A federal court said Utah artist Thomas Forsythe's use of Barbie dolls in photographs depicting the Mattel toy naked and being assaulted by kitchen appliances is protected as free speech.

The PR lesson: the stories will fade from newspapers and TV in a few days, but they'll be in search engines forever. Score for Mattel's image? Zero. At issue this time (there are 1240 references to other Mattel Barbie lawsuits in Google) was a 78-image series by the Utah artist, shot in 1999 and titled "Food Chain Barbie."

Upholding a decision by a lower court, the court of appeals said the works are obvious parodies and do not infringe on the company's copyright and trademark protection.

Mattel has a long history of mounting lawsuits over Barbie parodies, including a hilarious early Website of Barbie dolls in sexually compromising positions. They also sued Canadian stripper and nude model Barbie Doll Benson in 1999 over her domain name, insisting that it infringes on the Mattel trademark. The stripper, who'd been dancing under that name for 16 years, won.

Mattel's lawyers must be a really busy bunch because a Google search for "nude Barbie" turns up 229,000 results, which will be online forever. Even About.com's doll collecting blog has a recipe for a Barbie cake with a nude Barbie in the middle.