OMG Girlz Group Wins $71 Million Over Infringing Line of Dolls

Toy maker MGA Entertainment Inc. must pay $71 million to the former teen-pop group OMG Girlz for ripping of their names and likenesses in a line of dolls, a federal jury decided Monday in the third trial for a case that’s been ongoing since 2020.

The company infringed the trade dress of the pop group by making dolls, called L.O.L Suprise! OMG Dolls, that looked like OMG Girlz members, according to the group’s attorney B’Ivory LaMarr.

The jury awarded the pop group $17,872,359 in real damages and $53,616,759 in punitive damages, according to LaMarr. The jury also found that the dolls weren’t protected by the First Amendment, he said.

The feud between OMG Girlz and MGA Entertainment has involved a tangle of claims including accusations of cultural misappropriation—which was eventually banned from being mentioned at trial. After MGA filed a lawsuit seeking declaratory judgment that it didn’t steal any IP rights, the pop group, Xscape singer Tameka “Tiny” Harris, and rapper Clifford Harris—who goes by the stage name “T.I.”—filed counterclaims alleging misappropriation of their names and likenesses, trade dress infringement, and unfair competition. Harris and T.I. are OMG Girlz member Zonnique Pullins’ mother and stepfather.

Judge James V. Selna declared a mistrial in the first trial in January last year after prohibited testimony on cultural appropriation was introduced. Following the second trial, a jury in May 2023 cleared MGA of infringing. Selna granted OMG Girlz’ request for a new trial, concluding that the jury had been improperly instructed to apply the Rogers Test—which balances free speech and the appropriation of trademarks—which changed after the June 2023 US Supreme Court decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC shortly after the verdict. The high court’s ruling said that the test should be used only in cases where the allegedly infringed trademark isn’t being used to identify the source of a good.

The case is: MGA Entertainment Inc. v. Clifford T.I. Harris et al, C.D. Cal., 2:20-cv-11548, verdict filed 9/23/24.