Hip-hop mogul T.I. and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, won a $71 million grand jury award Monday after winning their third trial over allegations that toy giant MGA Entertainment infringed on the intellectual property rights of their teen pop group OMG Girlz with its popular “LOL Surprise! OMG” doll line.
Jurors awarded the couple and their companies $17.9 million in actual damages, plus $53.6 million in punitive damages, after a three-week trial in a federal courtroom in Santa Ana, California.
“I mean, oh my God. They did more than I expected,” Tini says. Rolling Stone After reacting to the amazing award, she said: “I would have been happy with anything. They blessed us more than we should have. We wanted to thank the judges so much, but we didn’t get the chance.”
In a complex verdict read Monday afternoon, jurors said 13 of the more than 30 dolls in dispute violated the trade dress and misappropriated the name, image and likeness of the girl group formed by T.I. and Tiny in 2009 with Tiny’s daughter Zonnique “Star” Pullins as a core member. The jury found that Doll No. 14 violated the group’s trade dress while Doll No. 15 misappropriated the name, image and likeness of the OMG Girlz.
“I think justice has been done. I think it’s a testament to the determination and resilience of my wife, my daughter and my sisters,” says T.I. Rolling Stone “We are happy that we were able to win and fight for creativity and intellectual property that big companies think is just public property and can be used by everyone,” the publisher of the book, which was published by The Verge, said by phone minutes after the ruling was read. He called the ruling a victory for “people who have actually put in the hard work and effort to build and create things from scratch.”
During the trial, MGA's attorney called the couple's lawsuit a “money grab.” T.I. said he was glad the jury disagreed. “I think it was a bullying tactic, trying to paint me as a bad person when in fact, they were the ones who [bad] “They were the ones who came and robbed us,” he says. [they] “We expected not to have the courage to stand up and speak up for ourselves… That kind of arrogance comes when you’re not really in touch with the reality of the culture after you’ve spent so long trying to force it your way and no one really stood up and spoke up against you.”
Outside the courtroom, Tinney thanked her legal team, including John Keevil, Shante Westmoreland, Robert Green, and Beavor Lamar. “Ultimately, the evidence showed [MGA] “They stole from us. They stole from our creativity,” she says. Rolling Stone“I'm glad we stuck with it. No one could tell me they didn't steal from us.”
At trial, T.I. and Tenney alleged that MGA marketed seven specific dolls with an appearance resembling the OMG Girls at “very specific public events” or in published photographs. MGA denied the allegations. Its billionaire founder, Isaac Larian, testified that T.I., Tenney and the three members of the OMG Girls — Zonnique “Star” Pullins, Behja “Beauty” Rodriguez and Breonna “Baby Doll” Womack — played no role in designing the company’s dolls. He called them “racketeers.”
Pollins, Rodriguez and Womack attended the trial and testified. They hugged each other in the hallway outside the courtroom after the verdict. “I’m so grateful and so happy,” Womack says. “When the judge asked us if we had a memorable costume and everyone raised their hands, I was so emotional,” Pollins says. “We all cried silently.”
In closing arguments Friday, the two sides sparred over the scope of OMG Girlz’s fame, what constitutes confusion in the marketplace and the difference between inspiration and misappropriation. Keevil showed jurors more than a dozen social media posts from people saying they believed the MGA dolls were inspired by OMG Girlz.
“This case is really about one party thinking they can do whatever they want, and they can impose on people whatever they want,” he said, noting that four consumers testified under oath, either directly or through videotaped depositions, saying they assumed OMG Girls was behind the MGA dolls.
MGA attorney Paul J. Loh called the infringement allegations “baseless and offensive,” saying his clients have sold more than 40 million “LOL Surprise! OMG” dolls and “never received a single complaint” from a customer who said they were “confused” about a possible association with the OMG Girlz doll. “It’s not right what’s happening,” Loh said in his closing argument about the infringement allegations. “We’re here to prove the truth.”
The jury returned its verdict Monday after two previous juries heard much of the same evidence in earlier proceedings with the same judge, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna. The first trial in January 2023 ended in a mistrial when jurors heard banned testimony accusing the gaming company of “cultural appropriation.”
The case went to its second trial in the spring of 2023, where a jury gave MGA a victory. T.I. and Tiny were granted a retrial in September 2023 after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 that the First Amendment does not necessarily protect a dog toy company that made a funny chew toy that resembled a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. Justice Elena Kagan’s opinion sent a message that consumer confusion should carry more weight than previously thought in infringement cases involving expressive works.
When he testified earlier this month, T.I. said he believed the seven dolls represented an “undeniably blatant” infringement when compared to the looks the OMG Girlz have worn at specific events, such as their All Around the World tour and New Year’s Eve performance in Atlanta. “You can put them in front of those pictures and you can see,” he testified. “Anyone with eyes can see that that picture influenced that doll.” T.I. said his camp narrowed the number of allegedly infringing dolls from more than 30 to seven specific dolls to focus on the “most obvious” alleged thefts and save time.
