Tereza Kuldova

Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History
University of Oslo

Tereza Kuldova is a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo. She is a trained social anthropologist and has studied the elite segment of the Indian fashion industry and conducted research on India for more than seven years. She has followed the production of luxury fashion from poor neighborhoods to elite designer studios and focused both on the material and immaterial production of prestige and heritage luxury and their functions in contemporary Indian politics and economy. She is currently part of the Enterprise of Culture research project funded by the HERA II program of the European Science Foundation. Among her recent publications is an edited volume Fashion India: Spectacular Capitalism (Oslo: Akademika Publishing, 2013). In 2016, her monograph Luxury Indian Fashion: A Social Critique (London: Bloomsbury), will be available. She has also curated and designed an ethnographic museum exhibition Fashion India (2013 – 2014) at the Historical Museum in Oslo.

Abstract

Outlaws in Fashion Business: Hells Angels vs. Alexander McQueen and Other Copyright Battles over Gang Insignia

Hells Angels, the notorious one-percenter motorcycle club with chapters all over the world, considered by many governments a global criminal organization, has over the last decade proven to be one of the toughest protectors of their trademarked gang insignias and of their fashion apparel and accessories labels for supporters, such as the ‘Support 81’ label run by Hells Angels’ chapters worldwide. The famous skull with wings logo (‘HAMC Death Head’), the words ‘Hells Angels’, ‘Big Red Machine, ‘Support 81’, ‘Red and White’, and ‘Route 81’ are all trademarked and copyrighted by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation (HAMC) worldwide, in addition to local variations. The HAMC Death Head received the Patent No. 926-590 from the United States Patent Office already on 4 January 1972.

In 2010, the HAMC represented by Fritz Clapp, their exclusive IP lawyer, sued Alexander McQueen, Saks Incorporated and Zappos Retail for trademark infringement, unfair competition and trademark dilution, i.e. for manufacturing, sourcing, marketing and selling jewellery, apparel and accessories that dilute HAMC Marks of membership. This famous case of HAMC vs. Alexander McQueen has brought the Hells Angels’ obsession with copyright and trademark protection to the attention of media worldwide, and yet no systematic academic analysis of the motorcycle’s club passionate concern for copyright exists till date.

This paper traces the history of the Hells Angels’ obsession with protecting their design and their gang insignia against imposters, infringers, wannabes and all other non-members, since the time they have adopted their name in 1948. It is a history of persistent fear of the dilution of their trademark, one that would diminish the power of the insignia, reduce its esteem in the milieu, and with it the power to monopolize trades and territories; it is a history of strict policing of boundaries between the insiders and outsiders in which the almost sacred design plays the main role. With the expansion of Hells Angels’ business from drugs to fashion, the HAMC has increasingly privileged the tools of IP law over violent coercion when it comes to protecting the ‘HAMC Death Head’ from diluters.

The paper explores not only the history and power of the HAMC trademark and with it the power of other brand logos at large, but also the unintended consequences of design protection at the intersection of gang insignia and fashion business. Following the anthropologist Carolyn Nordstrom, the paper also reveals the ways in which, as she observed in other cases, the illegal always coexists smoothly with the legal, rather than inhabiting opposing ends. The piece is based on review of literature, archival material, and legal documents and on interviews with members of the Norwegian chapters of Hells Angels, and anthropological studies of subcultures and criminal gangs.