New developments have emerged in a years-long authorized battle involving Atlanta entertainers T.I. and Tiny Harris, who filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2020 in opposition to MGA Leisure, the makers of a doll line named “OMG Dolls.”
A choose has slashed their $71 million award right down to $17.9 million, citing inadequate proof supporting the punitive damages in opposition to the toymaker MGA Leisure. Consequently, the courtroom has ordered a brand new trial.
The lawsuit alleged that MGA copied the likeness and picture of Tiny’s former woman group, the OMG Girlz, with out permission, utilizing their identify and elegance for a preferred line of vogue dolls.
“The courtroom as soon as once more agrees that this proof is inadequate to indicate willfulness or intent,” Choose James V. Selna stated his 33-page choice, filed within the California’s Central District courtroom Tuesday.
“At greatest, this proof exhibits that the designers noticed a passing reference to the OMG Girlz and have been negligent in not following up with the OMG Girlz having, themselves, been momentarily confused,” he continued, mentioning that whereas proof confirmed MGA designers have been conscious of the OMG Girlz once they started crafting the look of the OMG Dolls in December 2019, the Harrises failed to indicate “deliberate intent” to repeat their commerce gown.
“Nothing within the e mail thread gives clear and convincing proof that [designer Blanche] Consorti or different designers knew of the OMG Girlz commerce gown or willfully made use of that information,” the choose stated.
Within the courtroom’s newest choice, it acknowledged there should be “discovering of intent, acutely aware disregard or willfulness to help punitive damages in California,” which it says stays unsupported “by the clear weight of proof.” Initially, the Harrises took dwelling a $71 million win ($17.9 million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages) in September 2024 for misappropriation and commerce violations.
Nonetheless, the choose wiped the punitive damages after stating that the proof — one inside e mail, a Pinterest picture referencing the OMG Girlz and greater than 1,200 different photos — wasn’t sufficient to show the corporate purposely copied the OMG Girlz’s picture and likeness.
“The courtroom finds that whereas MGA’s conduct was not reprehensible, the $53.6 million verdict is inside the affordable and proportionate constitutional ratio for punitive damages and stage with comparable civil penalties,” the choice reads, stating that the “truthful” award for punitive damages is an quantity of $1.
The choice additionally impacts the monetary consequence of the case. The Harris’ unique $71 million settlement has now been decreased to just about $18 million, pending the end result of additional proceedings.
“If ultimately there’s one other mini-trial on simply the punitive damages, we anticipate one other jury can be equally offended by MGA’s maliciousness and copying,” T.I. and Tiny’s legal professional, Sheppard Mullin, stated in a press release to media.
“The courtroom’s order confirms what the jury discovered, that there was greater than enough proof to search out MGA wrongly misappropriated and infringed the OMG Girlz’ rights,” legal professional John Keville added. “Clearly, the Harrises and the OMG Girlz are very disillusioned that the jury’s applicable evaluation and response to MGA’s willful and dangerous religion conduct was discounted and never given the identical weight.” S: Fox 11