\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLess than a year after hip-hop mogul T.I.<\/a> and his wife Tameka \u201cTiny\u201d Harris scored an eye-watering $71 million jury award<\/a> with claims toy titan MGA Entertainment copied the name, neon hair, and unique outfits of their teen pop group OMG Girlz, a judge has slashed the payout by nearly three-quarters.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna found that the largest chunk of the jury\u2019s award \u2014 the $53.6 million granted for punitive damages \u2014 was \u201cunsupported\u201d by the evidence. Selna said that according to his review, the \u201cmaximum punitive damages award sustainable by the proof is $1,\u201d and if the Harrises aren\u2019t willing to take the remaining $17.9 million left in their award, plus the $1, their other option is a new trial.<\/p>\n \n\tIt wasn\u2019t immediately clear if such a new trial would be limited to the issue of punitive damages only, or if it would be a full retrial on the entire case. In a statement sent to Rolling Stone<\/em> on Wednesday, the lead lawyer for T.I. and Tiny says the couple plans to \u201creject\u201d the $1. That plan appears to be based on the assumption that any retrial wouldn\u2019t affect the separate $17.9 million compensatory damages award.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe are considering our options as to next steps \u2013 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\u2019s maliciousness and copying,\u201d the lawyer, John Keville with Sheppard Mullin, says.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe court\u2019s order confirms what the jury found, that there was more than sufficient evidence to find MGA wrongly misappropriated and infringed the OMG Girlz\u2019 rights,\u201d Keville says. \u201cObviously, the Harrises and the OMG Girlz are very disappointed that the jury\u2019s appropriate assessment and response to MGA\u2019s willful and bad faith conduct was discounted and not given the same weight.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJudge Selna made his dramatic ruling after MGA argued it did not act willfully and that the punitive damages amount was excessive. The judge said he ultimately determined that while there was evidence showing lead MGA designers knew about the OMG Girlz in December 2019, prior to the creation of the infringing dolls, the evidence presented to jurors failed to show a \u201cdeliberate intent\u201d to violate the OMG Girlz\u2019s intellectual property. Selna took a swipe at MGA when he said company staffers lost credibility in his eyes by refusing to \u201cconcede copying\u201d famous celebrities, even when the imitation was \u201cblatantly obvious.\u201d But he said the overall trial evidence fell short of proving \u201cwillfulness or intent\u201d on the part of MGA.<\/p>\n