A jury will be allowed to hear evidence that Mattel Inc. lawyers say will show that a former employee tampered with computer files to hide work he did for a competitor on the Bratz doll concept.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson ruled on June 10 that the jury could hear Mattel’s allegation that former employee Carter Bryant used a program called “Evidence Eliminator” to scramble file names before turning his computer over to lawyers in 2004.