{"id":236011,"date":"2025-07-11T12:37:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=236011"},"modified":"2025-07-11T12:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:37:47","slug":"judge-slashes-t-i-and-tinys-award-in-omg-girlz-copyright-infringement-case-over-toy-dolls-setting-up-potential-fourth-jury-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/judge-slashes-t-i-and-tinys-award-in-omg-girlz-copyright-infringement-case-over-toy-dolls-setting-up-potential-fourth-jury-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge slashes T.I. and Tiny\u2019s award in OMG Girlz copyright infringement case over toy dolls, setting up potential fourth jury trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta rapper Clifford \u2018T.I.\u2019 Harris and spouse Tameka \u2018Tiny\u2019 Harris may be headed to yet another jury trial against a toy company they accuse of ripping off their OMG Girlz pop group.<\/p>\n

In the latest development in a case that\u2019s been running for five years, a federal court judge in California reduced the award a jury granted to T.I., Tiny and OMG Girlz last fall by three quarters.<\/p>\n

The jury had awarded<\/a> the artists $17.8 million<\/strong> in actual damages and $53.6 million<\/strong> in punitive damages, for a total award of around $71.5 million<\/strong>. In an order issued on Tuesday (July 8), Judge James V. Selna<\/strong> reduced the punitive damages to $1<\/strong>, effectively cutting the total award by 75%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Judge Selna ruled that the jury\u2019s awarding of punitive damages was incorrect because the artists’ lawyers had not proven that toy company MGA Entertainment<\/strong>\u2019s infringement was \u201cwillful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per the judge\u2019s order, T.I. and Tiny now have the choice of accepting the lowered award, or requesting a new jury trial. They have two weeks to file a response with the court.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s unclear which option the artists will choose, but Judge Selna, in his order, which can be read in full here<\/a>, noted that in earlier oral arguments, the artists had said they would reject a reduced payment and go back before a jury.<\/p>\n

The legal battle began in 2020, when T.I. and Tiny accused MGA Entertainment of ripping off the girl group they had developed and launched, OMG Girlz, with a line of toy dolls dubbed LOL Surprise! OMG,<\/em> which MGA launched in 2019. They said the dolls clearly copied the OMG Girlz\u2019 fashion and hairstyles.<\/p>\n

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Following a cease-and-desist letter from T.I. and Tiny\u2019s lawyers, MGA Entertainment sued the artists in 2020, alleging that their claim that the OMG<\/em> dolls infringed on OMG Girlz had damaged their business. T.I. and Tiny countersued in 2021, accusing MGA of infringement of copyright.<\/p>\n

This led to no fewer than three jury trials. The first, held in early 2023, ended with Judge Selna declaring a mistrial, after jurors heard an argument that MGA\u2019s actions amounted to \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d of Black culture \u2013 an argument that the judge barred from the jury trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no reliable evidence that MGA had any knowledge of the group\u2019s trade dress or desire to use their likeness to create the infringing dolls.”<\/p>\n

Judge James V. Selna<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second trial, held later in 2023, ended with a victory for MGA. However, the artists’ were given leave to re-try the case after a US Supreme Court ruling<\/a> \u2013 in an unrelated case \u2013 which limited the freedom of expression defense in IP infringement cases.<\/p>\n

The third trial, held over three weeks in September 2024, saw MGA\u2019s founder, Isaac Larian<\/strong>, testify that that OMG Girlz played no role in the development of the LOL Surprise! OMG<\/em> dolls, and called the three members of OMG Girlz \u201cextortionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial ended with the jury siding with the artists and awarding them the $71.5 million.<\/p>\n

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In his order overturning that award, Judge Selna wrote that while MGA\u2019s designers \u201clost credibility\u201d during the trial when they tried to \u201cexplain away\u201d obvious similarities between their dolls and certain celebrities \u2013 for instance, a doll called Piano King<\/em> that \u201cclearly looks like Elton John<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 the evidence still \u201cfalls short of clear and convincing\u201d when it comes to the OMG Girlz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no reliable evidence that MGA had any knowledge of the group\u2019s trade dress or desire to use their likeness to create the infringing dolls,\u201d Judge Selna wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strong appearance that MGA copied other celebrities does not provide clear and convincing evidence that such was the case for the OMG Girlz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under these circumstances, per California law, an award of punitive damages is inappropriate, the judge concluded. \u201cTherefore, the jury\u2019s verdict on punitive damages cannot be sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n

“If in the end there is another mini-trial on just the punitive damages, we expect another jury will be similarly offended by MGA\u2019s maliciousness and copying.”<\/p>\n

John Keville, Sheppard Mullin<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lawyer for the artists, John Keville<\/strong> of law firm Sheppard Mullin<\/strong>, told Rolling Stone<\/a> in a statement that T.I. and Tiny plan to \u201creject\u201d the $1 in punitive damages and the legal team are \u201cconsidering [their] options as to next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, \u201cif in the end there is another mini-trial on just the punitive damages, we expect another jury will be similarly offended by MGA\u2019s maliciousness and copying,\u201d Keville stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s order confirms what the jury found, that there was more than sufficient evidence to find MGA wrongly misappropriated and infringed the OMG Girlz\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OMG Girlz were formed in 2009, composed of Bahja \u201cBeauty\u201d Rodriguez<\/strong>, Breaunna \u201cBabydoll\u201d Womack<\/strong>, and Tiny\u2019s daughter, Zonnique \u201cStar\u201d Pullins<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The group disbanded in 2015, but reunited in 2023, releasing Lover Boy<\/em>, their first single in over a decade. In 2024 they toured with Xscape<\/strong> and SWV<\/strong> as part of the Queens of R&B Tour<\/em>, and in March of this year they released a follow-up single, Make a Scene<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The jury\u2019s awarding of punitive damages was incorrect because it wasn’t proven that toy company MGA\u2019s infringement was \u201cwillful,\u201d a judge ruled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":212123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[134406,132842,132839,132840,134405],"class_list":["post-236011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-copyright-case","tag-mga-entertainment","tag-omg-girlz","tag-t-i","tag-tameka-tiny-harris"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236017,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236011\/revisions\/236017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}