Entertainment
Pop group OMG Girlz awarded $71m payout over dolls that copied their image and name
A toy company must pay $71.5m (£53m) for making dolls infringing the name and likeness of a US teen pop group.
OMG Girlz sued MGA Entertainment over its LOL Surprise! OMG dolls, arguing the company had copied their look and brand.
On Tuesday, the group finally won the long-running intellectual property case after a California jury agreed they had been ripped off.
It awarded $17.9m (£13.3m) in real damages and $53.6m (£39.9m) in punitive damages, saying their “trade dress” and “name, likeness and identity” had been infringed.
The payout goes to the group’s three members – Zonnique Pullins, Bahja Rodriguez and Breaunna Womack – and to Pullins’ mother and stepfather, Tameka ‘Tiny Harris’ and Chris T.I. Harris.
OMG Girlz – who formed in 2009 and have 232,000 Instagram followers – celebrated the win on social media.
“This is for creatives everywhere,” Rodriguez wrote.
“No longer will we be bullied into silence when it comes to others profiting off of our ideas and creativity.”
The legal action began in 2020 when MGA disputed a cease-and-desist notice from the group.
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Counter claims were filed and the first trial began in January 2023, but it was later declared a mistrial.
The toy company won a second trial but OMG Girlz successfully appealed and took it to a third court showdown.
MGA Entertainment always strongly denied the claims.
Its lawyer reportedly told the court during closing arguments the claim was “baseless and offensive”, arguing more than 40 million of the dolls had been sold without customer confusion.