Last year Tiny Harris filed a lawsuit against the makers of the L.O.L Surprise! dolls after accusing them of copying their look from her defunct all-girl singing group the OMG Girlz [click here if you missed that].
The judge has declared a mistrial...
From Bloomberg Law
The maker of the popular L.O.L. Surprise! OMG Dolls was granted a mistrial in an intellectual property dispute with rapper T.I. and former teen pop group OMG Girlz, after a California federal judge determined that prohibited testimony on cultural appropriation was introduced.
Prior to trial, which began Jan. 17, Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California barred testimony about the dolls’ alleged racist cultural appropriation.
MGA Entertainment originally sued OMG Girlz, Clifford T.I. Harris, and Xscape singer Tameka “Tiny” Harris—whose daughter, Zonnique Pullins, was a part of the music group—in December 2020. It sought a declaratory judgment that its OMG Dolls didn’t infringe on the intellectual property rights of the former band after receiving a cease and desist letter.
The OMG Girlz—who performed from 2009 to 2015—responded with counterclaims alleging misappropriation of their name and likenesses, trade dress infringement, and unfair competition. They also sought damages and an order blocking further sale of the infringing dolls. They claimed that the dolls’ names and appearances are similar to the members of OMG Girlz, and a comparison “makes it clear that the OMG Dolls were intentionally designed to trade on the OMG Girlz’ likeness and brand.”
The OMG Girlz’ original counterclaims also alleged cultural appropriation, accusing MGA Entertainment and its CEO Isaac Larian of using his “doll business to misappropriate the likeness of Black female artists.” Those claims were removed in subsequent filings, and Selna granted MGA’s motion to exclude mention of that claim at trial.
9 comments:
All you had to do was play by the rules, might have won. Fire the lawyer
@ 2:48PM Agreed. I think they might have won as well.
How could any reputable lawyer be that dumb? I wonder if they intentionally threw the case so they'd no longer have to work with Mr Check-A-Hymen and his concubine?
Can someone explain to me: If the dolls were the likeness of Zonnique & OMG girls but they were "misappropriating the likeness of Black female artists", what does that say about the groups look? Were they cute, ugly or trashy in their presentation? I don't know the aesthetic of the group or what was wrong or right with the groups look.
This is a losing battle.
Must be a slow news day.
They had it then blew it
Apparently they didn't understand the authority a sitting judge wields in a court of law, I have a very hard time believing the legal representative they hired to represent them didn't know this. Appears to be a case of a hack lawyer hoping he could open this case up to a bigger issue despite the explicit directions of the presiding judge.
the old saying a good lawyer knows the law a great one knows the judge played out to be true the hack they hired looked to use their case as an avenue to the bigger things, only having his ambition in mind killed any hope they had at getting relief for harm that is obvious. The dolls are clearly knocking off the members of the groups look and aesthetic, the public pretender they hired should have known the judge and that judges stance on wokeness and social issues clearly the judge was not allowing cultural appropriation into the courtroom.
I thought it was gonna be a reach but its 100% xerox.
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