T.I. and his spouse Tameka “Tiny” Harris received a shocking $71 million jury verdict Monday of their lawsuit claiming that toymaker MGA stole the design of a line of “O.M.G.” toy dolls from their real-life teen pop group OMG Girlz.
As first reported by Law360, jurors awarded the couple and their firms the large award after discovering that MGA’s dolls infringed each the commerce gown and the likeness rights of the OMG Girlz — a defunct musical trio created by Tiny and that includes her daughter Zonnique “Star” Pullins.
Following a three-week trial and a day of deliberations, the jurors awarded the rapper and his spouse $17.9 million in precise damages and one other $53.6 million in punitive damages. A spokesperson for MGA didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
In a press release to Billboard, T.I. and Tiny’s lead lawyer John Keville, of the legislation agency Sheppard Mullin, praised the “exceptional jury” for “holding MGA absolutely accountable.”
“T.I. and Tiny did what any mother or father would have carried out — used their sources to face up for his or her children,” Keville stated. “They fought a billion-dollar company bully with grace, perseverance, and a willpower to face up for themselves and different creatives.”
The authorized battle started in 2021, with T.I. (actual identify Clifford Harris) and Tiny claiming that MGA had dedicated each “cultural appropriation and outright theft of the mental property” by stealing the look of a bunch of “younger multicultural girls.”
Their grievance in opposition to MGA included side-by-side photos, aiming to point out how every OMG doll was instantly based mostly on a selected member of the OMG Girlz – Pullins, Bahja “Magnificence” Rodriguez, and Breaunna “Babydoll” Womack.
MGA maintained that it had carried out nothing mistaken — that the dolls had been extra typically branded as L.O.L. Shock! O.M.G., and that customers wouldn’t confuse the toys for the “short-lived” band.
Over three years of litigation, the case already went to trial twice. The primary trial, in January 2023, resulted in a mistrial after jurors heard inadmissible testimony that includes accusations of racism in opposition to MGA. The second trial then resulted in a verdict for MGA, with jurors clearing the corporate of wrongdoing. However that verdict was later overturned on attraction, setting the stage for one more trial.
On the third strive, the end result swung in favor of T.I. and Tiny. In a livestream on Instagram following the decision, she stated it had been “a hell of a combat” however that “we couldn’t be extra pleased.”
“We needed to thank the jurors for simply seeing us by means of this, and simply believing in what we stated,” she stated within the video. “They heard our story and so they knew we wasn’t mendacity. It’s superb.”
In their very own assertion to Billboard, the members of the OMG Girlz additionally celebrated the decision: “It has taken us over 4 years to get vindication for MGA’s illegal appropriation of our commerce gown and likeness,” they stated. “We hope this case makes firms suppose twice about taking an artist’s mental property with out their permission.”
MGA can nonetheless attraction the decision and the damages award, first by asking the decide to set them apart after which by taking the case to a federal appeals court docket.