*Rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris won a $71 million jury award after successfully proving that MGA Entertainment infringed on the intellectual property of their teen pop group OMG Girlz with the company’s “L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G.” doll line.
According to Rolling Stone, T.I., Tiny, and their companies were awarded $17.9 million in actual damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages after a three-week trial in a federal court in Santa Ana, California.
“I mean, wow. They did more than I thought they would,” Tiny shared with Rolling Stone after the jury’s decision. “I would have been happy with whatever. They blessed us more than beyond. We wanted to thank the jurors so bad, but we didn’t get the opportunity.”
T.I. added, “I think justice was served. I think it’s a testament to the relentlessness and resilience of my wife, daughter and nieces. We’re just happy we were able to come out on top and fight for creatives and our intellectual property that large corporations seem to think is just public domain and free for all to come and grab and use.” He called the verdict a win for “the people who actually put hard work and effort into building and creating things from nothing.”
The jury determined that 13 of the more than 30 dolls at the center of the case infringed on trade dress, the name, image, and likeness of the OMG Girlz, which T.I., Tiny, and their daughter Zonnique formed in 2009. Seven dolls had looks that copied the way the OMG Girlz appeared at “very specific public events” or in promotional photos.
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During the trial, MGA’s lawyer called the couple’s lawsuit a “money grab.”
“I think that was a bully tactic, trying to paint me as the bad guy when really, they were the [bad] ones,” T.I. said.
“They were the ones that came and ripped us off, and [they] expected us to not have the audacity to stand up and speak for ourselves,” he added “That kind of condescension comes from when you’re not really in touch with the reality of culture after you’ve gone so long kind of having it your way and nobody really standing up and speaking up against you.”
MGA’s billionaire founder, Isaac Larian, testified that T.I., Tiny, and the OMG Girlz members had no involvement in the design of his dolls, referring to them as “extortionists.”
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