The couple received their lawsuit in opposition to toy producer MGA Leisure.
Rapper T.I. and his spouse Tameka “Tiny” Cottle received a large lawsuit in opposition to toy firm MGA Leisure final month, and had been awarded $71 million in complete. In response to a report by Rolling Stone, the couple made the case that MGA’s “L.O.L. Shock! O.M.G.” line of dolls violated their mental property rights as a result of likeness of their daughter, Zonnique “Star” Pullins and her band OMG Girlz. On Monday, Sept. 23, a jury in Santa Ana, California, dominated that 15 of the dolls infringed on the trademark.
OMG Girlz is a pop music trio consisting of Pullins, Bahja “Magnificence” Rodriguez and Breaunna “BabyDoll” Womack. The group fashioned in 2009 with the steerage of Cottle, who was herself a member of the R&B group Xscape within the Nineties. They’ve labored with Pullins’ stepfather T.I. – whose actual title is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. – as effectively, and even collaborated with him on the music video “Good day.” Collectively, Cottle and Harris argued that MGA’s toy line had deliberately copied the looks, type and title of OMG Girlz with none licensing settlement with the intention to flip a revenue.
The case examined over 30 dolls from MGA’s toy line, however solely 15 had been discovered to have copyright violations. The jury discovered that one doll misappropriated the OMG Girlz title, picture and likeness, whereas one other violated the group’s “commerce costume.” The opposite 13 dolls “infringed on the commerce costume and misappropriated the title, picture, and likeness” of the band.
Each Harris and Cottle admitted that this was greater than they’d hoped for. In the course of the trial itself, Harris targeted on seven explicit dolls that he mentioned had been made to look the way in which the OMG Girlz dressed at “very particular public occasions” and particularly photographs. He referred to as the infringement “undeniably blatant,” including: “You possibly can maintain them as much as these footage and see. Anybody with eyes can see that this image influenced this doll.”
MGA argued in opposition to these allegations to the bitter finish. The corporate’s CEO testified that that OMG Girlz had performed no half within the improvement of those toys and his legal professionals famous that the corporate had no report of buyer complaints or commentary in regards to the similarity. Nevertheless, The OMG Girlz’s authorized crew offered proof together with social media posts evaluating the toys to the pop stars, and even sworn testimony from 4 shoppers who mentioned they’d assumed the OMG Girlz had been concerned within the MGA dolls primarily based on their look.
This authorized victory could also be short-lived with the widespread sexual abuse allegations in opposition to Harris and Cottle resurfacing this yr. Again in 2020, greater than 30 ladies and at the least one man accused the couple of “pressured drugging, kidnapping, intimidation and sexual assault” in incidents relationship again to 2005. The couple denied these allegations on the time, however they had been hit with a recent lawsuit in January of 2024. The lawsuit was dismissed in August as a result of statute of limitations, however that hasn’t slowed the commentary on social media – particularly with different high-profile tales of sexual abuse within the hip-hop business this yr.