Musicians T.I. and Tiny won tens of millions of dollars this week in a battle over intellectual property rights against toy company MGA Entertainment and its quirky OMG Fashion doll line.
Jurors on Monday awarded hip-hop couple Grand Hustle and Pretty Hustle’s businesses and teen pop trio OMG Girls $17.9 million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages, a total victory of more than $71 million, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
In their 2021 countersuit, T.I. and Tiny alleged that MGA Entertainment (the parent company of Little Tikes and Bratz) plagiarized the look of their OMG fashion dolls from the group OMG Girls, which Tiny formed in 2009. Since their inception, OMG Girls has performed and released music under the hip-hop couple’s business. The musicians (whose real names are Clifford Harris Jr. and Tameka Harris) allegedly used the group’s “unique fashion designs, visual imagery and hairstyles” to create and sell their fashion dolls. [was] It was “copied by OMG Dolls of MGA” without “any compensation, acknowledgment, or consent” from the trio’s creators.
The 2021 counterclaim included side-by-side photos of MGA’s OMG dolls and members of OMG Girlz, showing similarities in their concert outfits and vibrant hairstyles.
In 2010, MGA announced plans to launch a line of dolls modeled after the girl group “Where the Boys At?”, but the toy company never signed a contract with Grand Hustle or Pretty Hustle, the counterclaim states. MGA launched its OMG fashion dolls in 2019, but allegedly “copied the unique name, image and trade dress of the OMG Girlz.”
The case was initially set to go to trial in January 2023 but ended in a mistrial. A second trial began last May and was won by MGA, but the “Live Your Life” rapper and Xscape star was granted a retrial in September 2023. The third and final trial began earlier this month in federal court in Santa Ana, California, and lasted three weeks.
“They went above and beyond what I expected,” Tiny said in a statement to Rolling Stone, which first reported the verdict. “I would have been happy with any verdict. They congratulated us. I wanted to sincerely thank the jury but never had the chance.”
TI told the magazine: “Large corporations seem to think that creative work and intellectual property is simply public domain and that anyone can freely pick it up and use it, but we’re pleased to have won and been able to fight to protect that intellectual property.”
The current members of OMG Girlz (from left, Baja Rodriguez, Breanna Womack and Zo’Nique Pullins) perform in July 2012.
(Bill Haber/InVision/Associated Press)
The OMG Girls (now Zonnique Pullins, Baja Rodriguez and Breanna Womack) spoke to TMZ about their long-running fight against MGA’s “illegal appropriation” of their likeness, adding that they were grateful to the jury.
“We hope this case will make companies think twice about stealing artists’ intellectual property without permission,” the group said, echoing TI’s sentiments.
A legal representative for MGA Entertainment did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Tuesday.
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.