T.I., Tiny, OMG Girlz awarded $71 million for infringement violation

A federal jury has awarded an enormous judgement of $71 million to the rapper Clifford “T.I.” Harris Jr., his spouse Tameka “Tiny” Harris, and members of teen-pop group OMG Girlz.

The swimsuit claimed that toy producer MGA Leisure Inc. used the OMG Girlz’s likenesses with out permission for a line of dolls referred to as L.O.L. Shock! OMG Dolls, first launched in 2019. The dolls have since turn into wildly widespread, and on the end result of a three-week case on Sept. 23, a federal jury threw out MGA’s First Modification claims and awarded OMG Girlz $17.9 million in actual damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages.

Harris commented on the decision whereas leaving the courtroom with members of the OMG Girlz in a video posted to her Instagram on Sept. 23. “We’re seeing what we have been preventing for by means of the final three trials,” she stated. “They got here again with the perfect reply doable, they usually gave us what it felt like we deserve. We could not be extra blissful, or grateful.”

Harris continued that she sees this verdict as “a stepping stone for the tradition, for the creators. They’re going to know that they’ve the chance to do the identical, they usually can win.”

Leisure Weekly has reached out to MGA Leisure Inc. for remark.

The trademark case was first introduced in 2023, and included a cultural appropriation argument, alleging that the Black feminine entertainers’ likenesses had been used to encourage a line of largely white dolls — with out the entertainers being minimize into the revenue. Decide James V. Selma forbid point out of that argument and subsequently declared a mistrial when it was nonetheless raised in court docket.

A second trial that adopted resulted in a verdict for MGA, however T.I. and Tiny have been granted a retrial after a June 2023 Supreme Courtroom ruling which declared the First Modification did not shield a dog-toy firm promoting merchandise formed like bottles of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey.

After the case was introduced again to court docket a 3rd time, jurors finally discovered that 13 dolls among the many line’s 30 in whole infringed on the commerce gown of the OMG Girlz, in addition to misappropriated their identify, pictures, and likenesses. Two further dolls have been additionally discovered to have violated the group’s commerce gown and dedicated a number of misappropriations.

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Harris, a member of the band Xscape, shaped the OMG Girlz in 2009. The group consists of Harris’s daughter, Zonnique “Star” Pullins, in addition to Bahja “Magnificence” Rodriguez and Breaunna “Babydoll” Womack. They first carried out on a 2010 episode of the BET actuality sequence Tiny and Toya, and most just lately opened for SWV and Xscape on their “Queens of R&B Tour.”

Harris and T.I., in the meantime, face authorized troubles of their very own, having been accused of sexual assault in a January lawsuit. T.I. was additionally wrongfully arrested, and subsequently launched, in August because of a case of mistaken id.