US Government sues motorcycle gang for trademark
source: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/10/21/born-to-be-sued-the-mongols-saga
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/10/21/born-to-b...
In perhaps one of the weirdest intersections of corporate branding and criminal law to ever hit the federal docket, the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles today laid out a wide-ranging federal racketeering indictment against the Mongols, also known as the "Mongols™," seeking among other punishments, to strip the biker gang of its very name."In addition to pursuing the criminal charges set forth in the indictment, for the first time ever, we are seeking to forfeit the intellectual property of a gang," United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said. Were the court to grant the request, he added, then any law enforcement officer seeing a Mongol wearing the gang's signature patch "will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back."
The gang trademarked its name in 2005, federal records show, with the trademark encompassing all promotion of "interests of persons interested in the recreation of riding motorcycles." On the gang's patch, the name surrounds a character vaguely resembling Genghis Khan.
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- tags:
- Humor, Copyright, Gangs, Intellectual Property rights
