New developments have emerged in a years-long legal battle involving Atlanta entertainers T.I. and Tiny Harris, who filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2020 against MGA Entertainment, the makers of a doll line named “OMG Dolls.”

A judge has slashed their $71 million award down to $17.9 million, citing insufficient evidence supporting the punitive damages against the toymaker MGA Entertainment. As a result, the court has ordered a new trial.

The lawsuit alleged that MGA copied the likeness and image of Tiny’s former girl group, the OMG Girlz, without permission, using their name and style for a popular line of fashion dolls.

“The court once again agrees that this evidence is insufficient to show willfulness or intent,” Judge James V. Selna said his 33-page decision, filed in the California’s Central District court Tuesday.

“At best, this evidence shows that the designers saw a passing reference to the OMG Girlz and were negligent in not following up with the OMG Girlz having, themselves, been momentarily confused,” he continued, mentioning that while evidence showed MGA designers were aware of the OMG Girlz when they began crafting the look of the OMG Dolls in December 2019, the Harrises failed to show “deliberate intent” to copy their trade dress.

“Nothing in the email thread provides clear and convincing evidence that [designer Blanche] Consorti or other designers knew of the OMG Girlz trade dress or willfully made use of that knowledge,” the judge said.

In the court’s latest decision, it stated there must be “finding of intent, conscious disregard or willfulness to support punitive damages in California,” which it says remains unsupported “by the clear weight of evidence.” Originally, the Harrises took home a $71 million win ($17.9  million in compensatory damages and $53.6 million in punitive damages) in September 2024 for misappropriation and trade violations.

However, the judge wiped the punitive damages after stating that the evidence — one internal email, a Pinterest image referencing the OMG Girlz and more than 1,200 other images — wasn’t enough to prove the company purposely copied the OMG Girlz’s image and likeness.

“The court finds that while MGA’s conduct was not reprehensible, the $53.6 million verdict is within the reasonable and proportionate constitutional ratio for punitive damages and level with comparable civil penalties,” the decision reads, stating that the “fair” award for punitive damages is an amount of $1.

The decision also impacts the financial outcome of the case. The Harris’ original $71 million settlement has now been reduced to nearly $18 million, pending the outcome of further proceedings.

“If in the end there is another mini-trial on just the punitive damages, we expect another jury will be similarly offended by MGA’s maliciousness and copying,” T.I. and Tiny’s attorney, Sheppard Mullin, said in a statement to media.

“The court’s order confirms what the jury found, that there was more than sufficient evidence to find MGA wrongly misappropriated and infringed the OMG Girlz’ rights,” attorney John Keville added. “Obviously, the Harrises and the OMG Girlz are very disappointed that the jury’s appropriate assessment and response to MGA’s willful and bad faith conduct was discounted and not given the same weight.” S: Fox 11