The successful FORRESTER CREATIONS fashion house is the pinnacle of Eric Forrester's life. The company was built from scratch by Eric & Stephanie. It became successful thanks to 2 factors:
1. Eric's talents as a Haute Couture designer;
2. His loveless marrige to Stephanie which enabled him to devote all his time and energy to his work.
This was the legacy which Eric wanted to leave to his children. But unfortunately, thanks to Stephanie, Eric is not in control of Forrester Creations anymore. The CEO and major stocks holder is Brooke Logan Forrester. But let's start from the beginning.
Forrester Creations was Eric's dream since he was a teenager. But as talented as he was, it took Eric many years of hard work before he was recognized by the fashion industry. And finally when Forrester became a reality, there came the competition and the knock off artists like Sally Spectra who loves nothing more then knocking off Eric's best designs.
But Eric & Stephanie worked hard, overcame all the obstacles and made Forrester Creations into one of the leading fashion houses in L.A. And when it was time for Eric to sit back and enjoy, there came Stephanie and snatched it away from him.
I'm sure that when Stephanie launched her plan to break Eric & Brooke's marrige, she never intended to lose Forrester as a by-product. But that's what happened.
It all started when Brooke and Eric were already divorced, and he had recently married Sheila Carter (That wasn't what Stephanie had in mind when she broke Eric & Brooke's marriage, but that's what happened). Ridge was married to Taylor and the Forrester's lawyers were busy registering the BeLieF formula as a patent. The lawyers were unable to secure Forrester's rights in BeLieF because of a little problem: Forrester didn't own BeLieF, it belonged to Brooke.
As it happened, when Brooke developed the formula in the Forrester lab (the one that Eric has set up for her), she wasn't on Forrester's payroll. Being totally in love with her, and never in million years imagining the possibility that they will not spend the rest of their lives as husband and wife (that's what happens when you underestimate Queen Stephanie), Eric even didn't bother to sign Brooke as a Forrester employee. This fact made Brooke the legal owner of the BeLieF formula.
By the time that this "little" problem was discovered all Forrester products were based on BeLieF treated fabrics. So Eric had to secure the rights for Forrester. There were 2 ways to do it:
1. Sit Brooke down, explain the situation, and ask her to sign over the rights to Forrester Creations;
2. To con Brooke into signing over the rights.
Eric, who was still hurting very much over Brooke divorcing him, saw here an opportunity to get back at her, and took his lwayers advice to con Brooke.
Eric would have succeeded in his plan if not for 3 things: Ridge's stupidity, Stephanie's big mouth and Brooke's involvement (at the time) with attorney Connor Davis.
At Eric's request, Steve Crown (Forrester's patent attorney) ingratiated himself into Brooke's life by pausing as a masseur. At the same time Stephanie invited Brooke to a dinner party, trying to soften her. But Connor grew suspicious of Stephanie's sudden attack of kindness.
When the suspicious Connor, acting as Brooke's attorney, requested a copy of the BeLieF's patent papers, the Forresters panicked and Ridge volunteered to get Brooke to sign over her rights to BeLieF. But he was in such a hurry to deceive Brooke and then dump her, that he took with him an unsigned copy of the agreement, leaving the signed copy with Brooke.
Stephanie, who wasn't aware of the signed copy being left at Brooke's, rushed over there to gloat. By not being able to restrain herself when it comes to her hatred toward Brooke (The same hatred that will get Eric to re-dump her many years later), Stephanie caused Brooke to retaliate.
Brooke went to Eric's office, shredded the signed copy in front of the Forresters, and vowed that there are going to be some big changes.
A very desperate Eric begged Brooke to reconsider, while taking on himself the sole blame for the deception. Stephanie apologized, and the whole Forrester family promised Brooke never to deceive her again. And the mollified Brooke agreed to renounce her claim to BLF.
But just then, Connor recognized Brooke's masseur as Forrester's patent attorney and all hell broke loose. ("Go to hell Eric" is only a small example of what was going on.). Brooke claimed her rights as BLF creator and got into a fist fight with Stephanie
Eric, after almost having an heart attack, had no choice but to agree to give Brooke 51% (controlling interest) of the stock in Forrester Creations, in exchange for BLF. That's how Eric lost Forrester Creations, and Brooke became the CEO.
Owning 51% of Forrester Creations and becoming it's CEO, gave Brooke a very powerful and potent weapon against Eric and the Forrester clan. A weapon she didn't hesitate to use whenever things didn't go her way. (usually when she was dumped by one of the Forrester brothers
When Ridge dumped Brooke after he saw her and Grant Chambers kissing, and proposed to Taylor Hayes on Forrester's runway using the gown and ring meant for Brooke, she struck back using Forrester Creations. Brooke married Grant, appointed him CEO of the company and gave him creative control, making Eric his subordinate.
The fact that Eric, who had nothing whatsoever to do with Ridge's actions (It was Stephanie who once again was responsible for Eric being hurt thanks to her manipulations which got Ridge to be in the right place to see what he saw and start the ball rolling. was the major casualty in her campaign to win Ridge back, didn't matter to Brooke. It took Grant being shot by Rick and Ridge taking the blame on himself, for Brooke to realize what she has done to Eric and return the creative control to him.
If Brooke wasn't justified in using Forrester Creations as a pawn and hurting an innocent Eric in the Grant fiasco, she was more then justified in using it to take her revenge at him and Ridge after they managed to trick Throne into dumping her shortly after they got engaged in Venice.
Right now it looks like Eric is again going to lose the creative control over Forrester designs to Ridge's ex-girlfriend Morgan de Witt. And if being demoted wasn't enough, Eric was also given the distasteful task of training Morgan as Forrester's new head designer, and thus making her his superior.
This time Eric deserves everything that is happening to him at Forrester Creations and that Brooke is still has in store for him for sticking his nose in her love life.
