In their court struggle against a toy maker, T.I. and his wife Tameka ‘Tiny’ Harris were granted an astounding $71 million (£53 million).
The rapper and singer of Xscape, who went by the name Life Your Life, sued the executives of MGA Entertainment, alleging that some of the dolls in the L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. doll line infringed upon the pop group the OMG Girlz’s intellectual property rights.
Following a three-week trial in Santa Ana, California, the couple received actual damages of $17.9 million (£13.4 million) and punitive damages of $53.6 million (£40 million) from the jury on Monday.
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T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, responded to the decision by telling Rolling Stone, “I believe justice was done. I believe it speaks much about my wife, my daughter, and my nieces’ tenacity and fortitude. We’re just glad we were able to prevail in the battle for artists and our intellectual property, which big businesses seem to believe is open space that anyone may enter and utilize.”
Tiny continued, “Wow, really. They accomplished more than I had anticipated. Anyhow, I would have been content with it. They bestowed upon us immense blessings. We were very sorry not to have had the chance to express our gratitude to the jurors.”
The publication reports that all twelve jurors found that over a dozen of the dolls violated the trade dress and improperly used the OMG Girlz’s name, image, and likeness.
Breaunna ‘BabyDoll’ Womack, Bahja ‘Beauty’ Rodriguez, and Zonnique ‘Star’ Pullins, Tiny’s daughter, make up OMG Girlz. The group got back together last year after being inactive from 2009 to 2015.
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