Musicians T.I. and Tiny secured a payout price tens of tens of millions of {dollars} this week of their mental property battle in opposition to toy firm MGA Entertainment and its line of wacky OMG Fashion dolls.
Jurors on Monday awarded the hip-hop duo Grand Hustle and Pretty Hustle companies and teenage pop trio OMG Girlz $17.9 million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages, in line with paperwork reviewed by The Times. That’s a complete payout of greater than $71 million.
and Tiny alleged in a 2021 countersuit that MGA Entertainment (dad or mum firm of Little Tikes and Bratz) copied the look of its OMG Fashion dolls from OMG Girlz, the group shaped by Tiny in 2009. Since its founding, OMG Girlz has carried out and launched music below the hip-hop duo’s banner. The musicians, whose actual names are Clifford Harris Jr. and Tameka Harris, claimed that the group’s “distinctive trend design, visible picture, and coiffure (had been) copied from MGA’s OMG Dolls” and with out “any compensation, acknowledgement, or consent” from the trio’s creators.
The 2021 counterclaim included side-by-side photographs of MGA’s OMG dolls and OMG Girlz members, who confirmed similarities of their live performance outfits and vibrant hairstyles.
In 2010, MGA introduced plans to launch a line of dolls impressed by the lady group “Where the Boys At?”, however the toy firm by no means reached a settlement with Grand Hustle or Pretty Hustle, in line with the countersuit. MGA launched its OMG Fashion Dolls in 2019, allegedly “copying the distinctive identify, picture, and advertising and marketing picture of the OMG Girlz.”
The case initially went to trial in January 2023, however resulted in a mistrial. A second trial started final May and noticed MGA emerge victorious, however the “Live Your Life” rapper and Xscape star was granted a brand new trial in September 2023. The third and closing trial started earlier this month in a federal courtroom in Santa Ana, California, and lasted three weeks.
“They did greater than I assumed they might,” Tiny stated in an announcement to Rolling Stonewho first reported the decision. “I’d have been proud of something. They have blessed us greater than we’ve ever been. We wished to thank the jurors a lot, however we did not have the chance.”
TI advised the journal: “We’re simply comfortable that we had been in a position to win and battle for creatives and for our mental property, which huge firms appear to think about to be within the public area and free for anybody to take and use.”
The present lineup of OMG Girlz (from left, Bahja Rodriquez, Breaunna Womack and Zonnique Pullins) performs in July 2012.
(Bill Haber / Invision / Associated Press)
The OMG Girlz (presently Zonnique Pullins, Bahja Rodriguez and Breaunna Womack) spoke with TMZ News on their years-long battle in opposition to MGA’s “misappropriation” of their picture, including that they had been grateful to the jury.
“We hope this case makes firms assume twice earlier than taking an artist’s mental property with out their permission,” the group stated, echoing TI’s sentiment.
Legal representatives for MGA Entertainment didn’t instantly reply to The Times’ request for touch upon Tuesday.
