The domain names sold by a California woman are not the only infringements the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club are concerned with, the Ontario Chapter wants all its trademarked and copy written items back from the police. The club has brought a lawsuit against the police for return of “vests, jewelry, calendars, scarves, T-shirts, belt buckles, rings, pins, posters, a cuckoo clock, bumper stickers and anything else they have seized bearing the bikers’ trademarked logo of a winged skull. Those items were seized in dozens of police raids since the club came to Ontario eight years ago – including the Project Tandem raids on the Toronto chapter’s Eastern Ave. clubhouse and the Oshawa chapter’s Ortono Ave. headquarters.”
The Hells Angels’ lawyer states that anything and everything with the Death Head Logo belongs to the club as an entity and not to the individual wearer or person in possession of the item. Even tattoos belong to the club and not the wearer.
On June 9th, 2006, at the World Officer’s Meeting held in England, it was mentioned that the club should look to major businesses like Coca-Cola and Nike for examples of how to protect their business identity. The best I can tell from what I have read leads me to believe that currently, each member is responsible for maintaining copyright protection.
The issues will go before a judge on March 16th.
L&R,
ArtBiker
