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Less than a year after T.I. and Tameka “Tiny” Harris won their lawsuit against MGA Entertainment with a $71 million award, a judge cut down their payout to $18 million.
In the Tuesday, July 8 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna determined that the $53.6 million granted for punitive damages was “unsupported” by the evidence. Instead, he found that the “maximum punitive damages award sustainable by the proof is $1.”
“In assessing the evidence of MGA’s willfulness or intent, the Court finds that this amount reflects the fair value of a punitive award for MGA’s conduct,” the ruling states, adding that if the pair isn’t willing to take the remaining $17.9 million left, in addition to the $1, their other option is a new trial.
In the original lawsuit, T.I., 44, and Tiny, 49, claimed the company violated the intellectual property rights of their music group, the OMG Girlz, with the company’s L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls.
The couple’s lawyer, John Keville, said in a statement to PEOPLE that the couple plans to “reject” the $1 and is “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.
Meanwhile, the couple expressed disappointment over the ruling — but are confident that a new jury will be “similarly offended by MGA’s maliciousness and copying.”
“When we took on MGA Entertainment, we stood up for the OMG Girlz but also for something bigger. We stood up for every creative who wants to protect their vision and brand from unfair use without recognition and compensation,” they said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “The OMG Girlz’ lawsuit shows just how hard it is for creatives, especially Black artists and young entrepreneurs, to protect their intellectual property from billion-dollar corporations.”
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Per the documents, Judge Selna issued a new ruling after MGA argued it “did not act willfully” and “the award is excessive.”
Ultimately, the court found that while there is evidence that at least one designer was “aware of the OMG Girlz existence in December 2019,” it fails to show there was “deliberate intent to copy their trade dress upon learning of their identity.”
“There was no reliable evidence that MGA had any knowledge of the group’s trade dress or desire to use their likeness to create the infringing dolls. The strong appearance that MGA copied other celebrities does not provide clear and convincing evidence that such was the case for the OMG Girlz,” he wrote in the ruling. “Put together, the evidence falls short of showing willfulness, intent, or conscious disregard with respect to MGA’s conduct.”
The judge has given T.I. and Tiny two weeks to get back to him on what they plan to do next.
MGA Entertainment did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
After their victory in September, the Xscape singer shared her joy during an Instagram Live video outside of a Santa Ana, Calif., federal courthouse.
“We did this for the city. We did this for the culture,” she said at the time.
“It was a fight. It was a hell of a fight,” she continued of the case that started in 2020. “We couldn’t be more happy.”
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She also thanked the jurors for reaching a unanimous verdict.
“We wanted to thank the jurors for just seeing us through this, and just believing in what we said. They heard our story and they knew we wasn’t lying. It’s amazing,” Tiny added.
According to Rolling Stone, the jurors found that more than a dozen L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls “infringed on the trade dress and misappropriated the name, image, and likeness of the all-female band that T.I. and Tiny formed in 2009.”
The OMG Girlz consist of Bahja Rodriguez, Breaunna Womack and Tiny’s eldest daughter, Zonnique Pullins.
Over the years, Tiny has called out the L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. dolls for its similarities. In an Instagram post in September, she included side-by-side photos of the girls next to the dolls, with similar outfits and hairstyles.
MGA founder Isaac Larian, who denied the allegations, insisted that the group did not influence the dolls and referred to the famous family and OMG Girlz as “extortionists” during the trial.
