NEW YORK, NY.- The dolls are small. The award is big.
The dolls in question are L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls, several-inch-tall plastic dolls with big eyes and colorful hair part of a line of L.O.L. Surprise! dolls that often come in opaque packaging and that have been among the most popular toys of the past decade.
But these particular L.O.L. dolls, a jury ruled this week, looked way too much like the pop and R&B group OMG Girlz to be a coincidence.
That jury awarded $71 million to Atlanta rapper T.I., born Clifford Harris, and his wife, Tameka Harris, known as Tiny, on Monday. The jury found that toy giant MGA Entertainment had violated the intellectual property rights of their group, the OMG Girlz, with several of its dolls.
The OMG Girlz was a group created by the two more than a decade ago. Harris daughter Zonnique Pullins was a member of the group, which was formed in 2009 and broke up in 2015. They have since reunited to tour together.
The rapper and his wife have recently faced a host of allegations of sexual abuse and assault, which they have denied. They welcomed the results of this unrelated court battle.
OMG! OMG! said Tameka Harris in a live video posted to Instagram from outside a federal courthouse in Santa Ana, California, on Monday. We wanted to thank the jurors for just seeing us through this, and just believing in what we said.
MGA Entertainment, which could appeal the verdict, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
Over the course of the three-week trial in Orange County, California, three of the members of the OMG Girlz testified that not only did the dolls name mimic their groups but the dolls outfits also resembled ensembles from specific events, according to Rolling Stone.
Last week, the Harrises pointed to similarities in the outfits and appearances of the dolls and the singers in an Instagram post with the caption, Do these dolls look familiar?
Fans also told the jury that they had assumed the dolls had been made to look like the group.
Lawyers for the toymaker, which was founded by Isaac Larian, argued that the dolls had not been made to resemble members of the group, which, they said, had not lasted long enough to be recognizable to customers. They said the musicians had not lost business opportunities because of the toys existence.
MGA Entertainment has reported that it had made billions from L.O.L. Surprise! doll retail sales.
This is the third trial in four years involving the lawsuit that Clifford and Tameka Harris filed against MGA Entertainment over the dolls. The first trial ended in a mistrial after the introduction of prohibited testimony on cultural appropriation. The verdict in the second trial, which was in favor of the toymaker, was overturned on appeal.
It was a fight, Tameka Harris said in her video.
MGA Entertainment was embroiled not long ago in another protracted legal battle with toy giant Mattel over its Bratz dolls.
The verdict against MGA Entertainment on Monday came amid controversy for the Harrises.
In January, Clifford and Tameka Harris were sued by a woman who said the couple drugged and raped her after they met at a Los Angeles nightclub around 2005. The case was dismissed in August but a lawyer for the plaintiff said that she planned to sue again.
That lawsuit came as several others accused the Harrises on social media and in news reports of sexual assault. The couple has denied the allegations, and no criminal charges have been filed. In early 2021, Clifford Harris said in an Instagram video that all of his sexual encounters had been consensual.
Clifford Harris, who turns 44 Wednesday, emerged as a pop star after years as a major figure in the Atlanta street rap scene. After repeated arrests involving drugs and firearms early in his life and career, he has in recent years become an actor, entrepreneur and activist, speaking out for civil rights and Black communities.
Tameka Harris, 49, is a member of the R&B group Xscape, and received a Grammy Award for writing contributions on TLCs hit song No Scrubs. The two were married in 2010 after dating for many years and starred in the reality show T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle, which premiered on VH1 in 2011 and was suspended in 2021 amid the sexual assault allegations.
They have raised several children together, including Pullins, 28, who goes by the name Star as a member of OMG Girlz. The other original members of the group are Bahja Rodriguez, known as Beauty, and Breaunna Womack, known as Babydoll.
The three reunited this year to perform as part of a tour featuring Xscape and SWV titled Queens of R&B.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.