Photo Credit: Engin Akyurt
T.I. and Tiny Harris have been awarded the full $71.4 million in damages they initially won in their lawsuit before a judge nearly docked it by 75%.
Toy giant MGA Entertainment, which created the LOL Surprise! doll line, was initially ordered to pay over $71 million in September. The company was found liable for infringing the T.I. and Tiny Harris’ OMG Girlz intellectual property. But Judge James Selna had considered reducing the amount payable to around $17 million in January — omitting the $53.6 million in punitive damages.
Fortunately for the couple, Judge Selna changed his mind and has officially awarded them the original full amount. “There’s a lot to contemplate. I want to put this down for a couple days, and I want to come back to it fresh from the top,” the judge said in a statement to journalists at the time, confirming that he was not convinced in his original consideration of reducing the amount.
Initially, Judge Selna suggested there was not enough evidence to prove that MGA Entertainment acted in bad faith when they copied the OMG Girlz’ likeness. Therefore, he posited that the punitive damages may not be warranted, and considered reducing the amount payable to just the real damages, or around $17.8 million.
“The OMG Girlz are getting their $53 million in punitive damages from toymaker MGA over the OMG Dolls!” wrote journalist Meghann Cuniff. “Judge Selna changed his mind! Order issued today!”
Tiny wrote on her Instagram Story, “Don’t play with God’s children! So thankful and grateful to our amazing law team.” She also commented on The Shade Room’s post of the news, “God be showing out!! So thankful and happy for [OMG Girlz Bahja Rodriguez and Breaunna Womack] and [daughter Zonnique] most of all!”
T.I. and Tiny’s lawsuit against MGA Entertainment accused them of copying the likeness of their girl group, OMG GIrlz. The successful ruling agreed that seven of the dolls in the LOL Surprise! OMG dolls product line copied the likeness of the trio. MGA has denied allegations of copyright infringement, but T.I. and Tiny further asserted that the company was bullying them for filing the suit.
“[They were] trying to paint me as the bad guy when really, they were the [bad] ones,” said T.I. “They were the ones that came and ripped us off, and [they] expected us not to have the audacity to stand up and speak for ourselves.”