A live performance from T.I., who’s confirmed plans to seek a new damages-specific trial in a marathon lawsuit centering on the OMG Girlz. Photo Credit: Carla
Multiple years and three trials later, the marathon legal battle between T.I. and MGA Entertainment is poised to receive yet another trial, this time to redetermine punitive damages.
The presiding judge confirmed as much earlier this week, and the appropriate litigants yesterday took the first step towards scheduling the fourth trial. As some know, the saga centers on Bratz creator MGA’s L.O.L Surprise! O.M.G. dolls line and the OMG Girlz group.
With T.I., his wife Tameka (aka “Tiny”), and OMG Girlz (not the individual members, including Tiny’s daughter Zonnique Pullins, themselves) aboard as plaintiffs, the filing parties maintain that the defendant company copied the girl group’s likeness and “signature look” in a number of dolls.
On the other side of the showdown, MGA is adamant that it didn’t infringe on any IP and has fired back with claims of its own.
Keeping the focus on brass-tacks takeaways – there have, of course, been more than a few twists in the lengthy courtroom confrontation – MGA emerged victorious in a 2023 trial.
A Supreme Court ruling then prompted a 2024 trial – and, in the end, a verdict in favor of the T.I. plaintiffs. The jury awarded OMG Girlz almost $18 million in actual damages and punitive damages nearing $54 million, for in excess of a staggering $71 million overall.
Fast forward to the top of 2025, when Judge James Selna tentatively slashed the gargantuan award on the punitive side. And this week, in keeping with MGA’s formal motions, the court reiterated “that the jury’s verdict on punitive damages cannot stand.”
“In this case, the Court finds that the maximum punitive damages award sustainable by the proof is $1,” Judge Selna wrote. “In assessing the evidence of MGA’s willfulness or intent, the Court finds that this amount reflects the fair value of a punitive award for MGA’s conduct.”
Suffice to say that the massive punitive-award reduction didn’t sit (and isn’t sitting) right with T.I. and Tiny, who’d already made clear their plans to reject remittitur and push for a fresh damages trial.
Enter the OMG Girlz parties’ concise notice yesterday to “lodge their denial of the $1 remittitur.” Per the same document, Team T.I. attorneys are poised to confer with MGA counsel on “a proposed briefing schedule for the structure of the new trial on punitive damages.”
Of course, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for this trial – and the all-important verdict. In the bigger picture, the ruling marks the newest in a line of less-than-ideal legal developments for T.I., who a federal court recently barred from using the title Situationships for an upcoming film.
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