T.I. and Tiny’s lawsuit against MGA on the L.O.L. Surprise dolls’ similarity to OMG Girlz ended in a mistrial. The outcome came after a customer said she couldn’t “support a company that steals ideas from Black people.”
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Updated By: Kendall Parks (1/26/23 at 3:28 pm)
The Family Hustle couple caught a bad break when the case resulted in a mistrial where they accused the toy company, MGA Entertainment, of profiting off the OMG Girlz’ image. The ruling came down after a customer said she didn’t support MGA anymore because they steal ideas from Black people. MGA’s lawyer Alan Hilowitz also spoke out and expressed how diversity has always been a part of their company:
“Diversity has always been a key value at MGA Entertainment in both our people and our toys. In fact, MGA brought diversity to the fashion doll category more than 21 years ago with the introduction of Bratz dolls. We are disappointed that the trial was cut short but look forward to vindicating our rights in the next trial.”
So far, the legal team for T.I. and Tiny hasn’t responded to the ruling. The mistrial comes two days before the “Be Easy” rapper got to speak in the courtroom after Tiny and her daughter Zonnique Pullins.
T.I. and his wife Tiny faced off in court against toy company MGA from Santa Ana, Calif., alleging they infringed on copyrights and drew inspiration from the OMG Girlz for the popular L.O.L. Surprise dolls.
In one of the latest trends of lawsuits in the entertainment industry, the married hip-hop couple is suing toy company MGA for mimicking the style of OMG Girlz with their L.O.L Surprise and OMG dolls as they have the same image, trade dress, and name, which drew obvious similarities to them.
The group was organized by Tiny with her daughter Zonnique Pullins, Bahja Rodriguez, and Lil Wayne’s daughter Reginae Carter, who was part of the group before she left and signed to her father’s label Young Money.
In response to the Harris family’s claims, MGA’s lawyer Jennifer Keller said, “They want tens of millions of dollars from MGA Entertainment for doing absolutely nothing, and I do mean nothing,” she said. “We’re going to show you that the OMG Girlz actually copied us and now complain we look like them. They were trend followers, not trendsetters.”
Flo Rida won his lawsuit against Celsius, a Florida energy drink company, on Jan. 19. Flo received over $82M in damages as well as the 750K shares in stock-based bonuses he earned after generating contract sales.
