TI and Tiny awarded 71m in toy row
T.I. and Tameka 'Tiny' Harris have been awarded a staggering $71 million damages after winning their trial against L.O.L. Surprise! manufacturers MGA Entertainment.
T.I. and Tameka 'Tiny' Harris have been awarded a staggering $71 million damages.
The 'Live Your Life' rapper and his wife won their third court trial against toy company MGA Entertainment on Monday (23.09.24) after the firm were accused of violating the couple's OMG Girlz music group's intellectual property rights with their L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls and the pair are elated to see "justice has been served".
T.I. told Rolling Stone magazine: "I think justice was served. I think it's a testament to the relentlessness and resilience of my wife, daughter and nieces. We're just happy we were able to come out on top and fight for creatives and our intellectual property that large corporations seem to think is just public domain and free for all to come and grab and use."
Jurors awarded the 43-year-old rapper - whose real name is Clifford Harris - and his wife $17.9 million in real damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages and Tiny, 49, admitted they weren't expecting such a settlement.
She said: "I mean, wow. They did more than I thought they would.
"I would have been happy with whatever. They blessed us more than beyond. We wanted to thank the jurors so bad, but we didn't get the opportunity."
The couple's legal team praised the stars for being determined to get justice.
Their lawyer told E! News: "We were proud to represent the OMG Girlz, Tiny, and T.I., who had the courage to stand up for themselves and fight a billion-dollar corporation's intimidation and insults with grace, perseverance, and a determination to protect their intellectual property and the rights of other creatives."
They praised the couple for having the determination to see that a "remarkable jury did the fair, just and right thing by holding MGA Entertainment fully accountable for trade dress infringement and for misappropriation of name, likeness, and identity."
Following the three-week trial in California, jurors found 13 L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls had "infringed on the trade dress and misappropriated the name, image, and likeness" of T.I. and Tiny's OMG Girlz band.
They also found that a 14th doll violated the group's trade dress, while another misappropriated the band's name, image and likeness.
The couple had started OMG Girlz - which included Tiny's daughter Zonnique 'Star' Pullins, Bahja 'Beauty' Rodriguez and Breaunna 'Babydoll' Womack - in 2009 and alleged seven of the L.O.L. Surprise! dolls had copied the group's looks at "very specific public events or in publicised photos".
MGA's founder, Isaac Larian, had branded the pair "extortionists" and insisted OMG Girlz had played no role in the appearance of their dolls.
