T.I. and Tiny vowed to reject a decide’s decreased $1 punitive damages ruling of their lawsuit towards MGA Leisure over OMG Girlz.
T.I. and Tiny Harris are pushing again after a federal decide slashed their $71 million courtroom victory to only below $18 million of their mental property battle with toy large MGA Leisure over the OMG Girlz likeness.
The couple’s authorized crew confirmed they plan to reject the revised judgment, which gutted the unique $53.6 million punitive damages right down to a symbolic $1, leaving solely the $17.9 million in compensatory damages intact.
Their legal professional, John Keville, instructed PEOPLE the pair is “contemplating our choices as to subsequent steps.”
“But when in the long run there’s one other mini-trial on simply the punitive damages, we count on one other jury will likely be equally offended by MGA’s maliciousness and copying,” Keville mentioned.
The decide’s determination, issued earlier this week, discovered there wasn’t sufficient proof to show MGA acted with “willful intent or aware disregard,” a authorized threshold required for punitive damages.
T.I. and Tiny now have two weeks to determine whether or not to just accept the decreased payout or push for a brand new trial centered solely on punitive damages.
In a joint assertion, the couple mentioned, “Once we took on MGA Leisure, we stood up for the OMG Girlz but in addition for one thing larger. We stood up for each inventive who desires to guard their imaginative and prescient and model from unfair use with out recognition and compensation.”
They added, “The OMG Girlz’ lawsuit exhibits simply how laborious it’s for creatives, particularly Black artists and younger entrepreneurs, to guard their mental property from billion-dollar firms.”
The authorized combat started when the couple accused MGA of copying the OMG Girlz’s identify, picture and elegance for a line of L.O.L. Shock! O.M.G. dolls with out permission. The lawsuit centered on seven dolls that allegedly mimicked the group’s signature look and branding.
After years of litigation, together with a mistrial and retrial, a jury in September 2024 sided with T.I. and Tiny, awarding $71 million in damages—$17.9 million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages.
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