It happened in a way with the Mongols in California. The state tried to take away their power by taking away their colors. But, patent and copyright law finally put an end to that.
It happened to a woman in California who had bought up all the “Hells Angels” related terms in the dot com marketplace and then tried to auction the names off. Again, patent and copyright law prevails.
Now, the Hells Angels in Australia have just won a battle over their “death head” logo, which was used by a company named Mambo to adorn part of their clothing line. As well as a confidential settlement, Michael Gazal, managing director of Gazal Corp Ltd (Mambo’s owner), wrote an official letter of apology to the club. The apology reads like this: “”Gazal would like to publicly acknowledge the Hells Angels’ intellectual property rights in its trademarks and artistic works, and the considerable reputation it has in those trademarks and artistic works, a reputation which stems from a long history of use both in Australia and internationally.”
The offending garments were a child’s hooded sweatshirt and a sugar-pink mini-skirt.
