USA - Despite outlaw image, Hells Angels sue often

OFF THE WIRE
Fritz Clapp, a 67-year-old lawyer with a bright red mohawk, practices intellectual property law. Years ago, his clients were "small-time businesses that nobody had ever heard of." Then he found something bigger. Today, Mr. Clapp, an eloquent and irreverent man known to wear a purple fez during negotiations with other lawyers, represents the interests of a group not commonly associated with intellectual property: the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. His main role is not as a bulldog criminal defense counsel for the notorious group but as a civilized advocate in its relentless battle to protect its many registered trademarks.

Just in the past seven years, the Hells Angels have brought more than a dozen cases in federal court, alleging infringement on apparel, jewelry, posters and yo-yos. The group has also challenged Internet domain names and a Hollywood movie — all for borrowing the motorcycle club's name and insignias. The defendants have been large, well-known corporations like Toys "R" Us, Alexander McQueen, Amazon, Saks, Zappos, Walt Disney and Marvel Comics. And they have included a rapper's clothing company, Dillard's and a teenage girl who was selling embroidered patches on eBay with a design resembling the group's "Death Head" logo.

The Hells Angels remain etched in the popular imagination as sullen, heavily muscled men in leather vests who glare from behind raised handlebars, ready to take on anyone who crosses them — rebels with no particular cause but their own form of ritualized brotherhood. But over the years, the group collectively made a leap from image to brand, becoming a recognizable marque and promoting itself on items as varied as T-shirts, coffee mugs and women's yoga pants. Sonny Barger, 75, the longtime Hells Angels leader, at times has offered his own online bazaar of goods that bear his name: sunglasses, bottles of cabernet sauvignon and books he has written.

With more to sell and more to protect, the Hells Angels' turn toward the litigious comes with a twist: The bikers are increasingly calling on the same legal system they deride as part of the machinery that has unfairly defined them as criminals.

In fact, they have become more conscious of protecting their image from misuse even as law enforcement officials have cracked down on the Hells Angels, saying they represent a criminal gang on six continents, trafficking drugs and guns and engaging in money laundering, extortion and mortgage fraud.

These conflicting portraits — biker club versus biker mafia — took shape in numerous interviews with Hells Angels members, defense lawyers, prosecutors and federal agents and in a wide review of legal filings and internal Hells Angels documents. The group's less confrontational side has emerged as its aging membership has been refreshed by new members from a historically familiar source — recent military veterans — and as motorcycling in general has risen in popularity across the country.

"We stabbed and slabbed people left and right in the day, but that way is less common now," said Richard Mora, known as Chico, a Hells Angels member in the Phoenix chapter.

Even so, 65 years after the Hells Angels was founded in Fontana, Calif., it still exists as a uniquely American subculture of hardened individualism, fierce fraternity and contempt for society's mores.

In its rule-bound world, only full members are permitted to wear the provocative death's-head patch or the two words of the club's name, which, like the logo, is trademarked by the organization. Separately, the group sells so-called support merchandise to the public on club websites and at Hells Angels parties and charity events. Recently the club opened a retail store in Toronto.

Designations such as 81 (H and A are the eighth and first letters of the alphabet) and Big Red Machine (Hells Angels' colors are red and white) are on an array of goods, including T-shirts (children's sizes available), beanies, tank tops, bikinis, underwear, pins, cigars, key chains, window decals and calendars.

The bikers generally settle their lawsuits on favorable terms, extracting concessions from the accused parties by getting them to stop using the trademarks, destroy and recall merchandise and, in a few instances, pay some damages.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101235239