Musicians TI and Tiny secured a tens of millions of dollars payout this week in their intellectual property battle against toy company MGA Entertainment and its line of quirky OMG Fashion dolls.
On Monday, jurors awarded hip-hop duo Grand Hustle and Pretty Hustle and teen pop trio OMG Girlz $17.9 million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages, according to documents reviewed by The Times. That's a total payout of more than $71 million.
and Tiny alleged in a 2021 countersuit that MGA Entertainment (parent company of Little Tikes and Bratz) copied the look of its OMG Fashion dolls from OMG Girlz, the group Tiny formed in 2009. Since its founding, OMG Girlz has performed and released music under the hip-hop duo's businesses. The musicians, whose real names are Clifford Harris Jr. and Tameka Harris, alleged that the group's “unique fashion design, visual image, and hairstyle” [was] copied by OMG Dolls from MGA” and without “any compensation, acknowledgement or consent” from the trio’s creators.
The 2021 countersuit included side-by-side photos of MGA’s OMG dolls and the OMG Girlz members, showing similarities in concert outfits and vibrant hairstyles.
In 2010, MGA had announced plans to release a line of dolls inspired by the girl group “Where the Boys At?”, but the toy company never reached an agreement with Grand Hustle or Pretty Hustle, according to the countersuit. MGA released its OMG Fashion Dolls in 2019, allegedly “copying the unique name, image and trade dress of 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 saw MGA emerge victorious, but the “Live Your Life” rapper and Xscape star was granted a new trial in September 2023. The third and final trial began earlier this month in federal court in Santa Ana, California, and lasted three weeks.
“They did more than I thought they would,” Tiny said in a statement to Rolling Stone, which first reported the verdict. “I would have been happy with whatever. They blessed us more than they allowed us to. We wanted to thank the jurors, but we didn’t get the chance.”
TI told the magazine: “We are happy that we were able to come forward and fight for creatives and our intellectual property, which big corporations seem to think is in the public domain and that everyone can take it and use it freely.”
The current roster of OMG Girlz (from left, Bahja Rodriquez, Breaunna Womack and Zonnique Pullins) is featured as of July 2012.
(Bill Haber/Invision/Associated Press)
The OMG Girlz (currently Zonnique Pullins, Bahja Rodriguez and Breaunna Womack) spoke to TMZ about their years-long battle against MGA's “illegal appropriation” of their image, adding that they are grateful to the panel.
“We hope this case will make companies think twice before taking an artist’s intellectual property without their permission,” the group said, echoing TI’s sentiment.
Legal representatives for MGA Entertainment did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment Tuesday.
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
