Credit: T.I.

T.I. and his wife, Tameka ‘Tiny’ Harris, were awarded $71million last year after alleging toy company MGA Entertainment stole elements of their teen pop group, OMG Girlz. However, on July 8th, a judge reduced the award by almost three-quarters of the initial amount.

US District Court Judge James V Selna ruled that the $53.6million for punitive damages was “unsupported” by evidence, adding that the “maximum punitive damages award sustainable by the proof is $1.” If they are unhappy with the outcome, leaving just a $17.9m compensatory damages award, he stated that T.I. and Tiny must seek a new trial and decide within two weeks.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, their lawyer, John Keville, revealed they planned to reject the $1 award. “We are considering our options as to next steps – but 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,” he said.

“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. Obviously, the Harrises and the OMG Girlz are very disappointed that the jury’s appropriate assessment and response to MGA’s wilful and bad faith conduct was discounted and not given the same weight.”

The couple claimed several toys in MGA’s ‘LOL Surprise! OMG’ range replicated the image of OMG Girlz, alleging they were based on appearances at public events.

Speaking on the trial previously, T.I. said, “[They were] trying to paint me as the bad guy when really, they were the [bad] ones. They were the ones that came and ripped us off, and [they] expected us to not have the audacity to stand up and speak for ourselves.

“That kind of condescension comes from when you’re not really in touch with the reality of culture after you’ve gone so long kind of having it your way and nobody really standing up and speaking against you.”