It has surely crossed the mind of many a knit-browed parent that the Bratz doll prototype would land in trouble somewhere.

“The creators of the Bratz doll — the provocatively dressed, collagen-enhanced, bratily named successor to the Barbie mantle — is now in court in a lawsuit brought on by Barbie’s creator Mattel,” Interactive Brokers Group equity options analyst Rebecca Engmann Darst told Reuters.

“Thankfully, it has not involved the vice squad,” she said.

Instead, the company behind the wildly successful Bratz franchise, MGA Entertainment, has been hauled into court by Mattel on grounds that Carter Bryant, the creator of the sassy fashion dolls was employed by Mattel when he first conceived the sketches — making them Mattel’s rightful property, Darst said.

Shares in Mattel responded with restrained upside, up 14 cents to $20.25.

But Darst noted the potential fallout of a courtroom showdown left a more conspicuous impact on Mattel’s options.

Option volume of roughly 22,000 contracts late on Wednesday equaled about one third of Mattel’s total open interest of 67,000 lots and was 12 times the normal level, according to Interactive Brokers data.

Most of that volume was situated in Mattel calls and specifically in the July series in the $20 strike, which allows investors to buy Mattel shares at $20 by July 18.

The price of these options at $1.40 a contract during the session implies continued share price gains just to break even on that trade, she said.

Mattel’s implied volatility, a measure of anticipated stock price volatility used in the pricing of options, rose 14 percent to 33.8 percent from Tuesday’s close, making it one of the afternoon’s top volatility gainers in the U.S. options market, she said.

“The interest in the July calls suggested a whiff of confidence among option traders that the Barbie maker’s legal smack down against the Bratz creator has some merit,” Darst said. – By Doris Frankel in Chicago

(Photo: MGA Entertainment)