T.I. And Tiny Harris Awarded $71 Million In Lawsuit Over OMG Girlz vs. OMG Dolls
T.I. and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris just received a major win in their long-standing lawsuit against MGA Entertainment. The couple insisted that the toy company jacked their girl group, the OMG Girlz, for its popular L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls without consent. After a three-year court battle, a jury has awarded T.I. and Tiny $71 million in damages.
An elated Tiny, 49 said after the win, “We did this for the city. We did this for the culture,” speaking outside a Santa Ana, California, courthouse on September 23.
She added, “It was a fight. It was a hell of a fight. We couldn’t be more happy.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, contended MGA’s dolls swiped the distinctive “trade dress”-a legal term for a product’s look and feel-of the OMG Girlz. This all-girl group, assembled in 2009, included Bahja Rodriguez, Breaunna Womack, and Tiny’s daughter, Zonnique Pullins. A jury found that more than a dozen dolls bore a resemblance to the girls that was just a little too familiar-from hair to outfit.
Tiny wasted no time during the trial pointing out uncanny resemblances between the dolls and her OMG Girlz on social media. Last week, she posted a side-by-side photo of the group in nearly identical outfits next to the dolls via Instagram and asked, “Do these dolls look familiar?”
Her caption in the post read, “1 of many but biggest custom outfit in questioned! @omggirlz vs #OMGDolls last wk of court! God willing the truth will prevail!!!”
And prevail it did, as not only did the jury side with Tiny and T.I., but they also awarded $53.6 million in punitive damages-a sum that left Tiny beyond belief. “They blessed us more than beyond. We wanted to thank the jurors so bad, but we didn’t get the opportunity,” she told Rolling Stone.
A sweet moment for the OMG Girlz, as well. Bahja, Breaunna, and Zonnique all testified at trial, relating to the court just how much the dolls resembled them. Breaunna gushes to Rolling Stone, “I’m so grateful and overwhelmed with joy.”
“When the judge asked if we had a memorable trade dress and everyone raised their hands, I got so emotional. We all silently cried,” Zonnique added.
T.I. himself spoke his mind on the legal victory. He did not spare words in vilifying the defense from MGA Entertainment, which sought to portray the lawsuit as no more than a “money grab.” “I think that was a bully tactic,” the rapper said, explaining how the toy company underestimated their determination. “They were the ones that came and ripped us off and [they] expected us not to have the audacity to stand up and speak for ourselves,” he said.
On the other side, MGA founder Isaac Larian fervently denied the accusations all along, even going so far as to label the OMG Girlz and their family “extortionists” during the trial.
After fighting in court for years, T.I. and Tiny have finally come out on top in their fight for their group’s intellectual property. As Tiny would say in her Instagram video, this win was not for them; it was for the culture.
