Intellectual Property Lawyers Fighting Crime

Gangs are a terrible problem in Los Angeles and in many of our major cities. Gangs import, create and market drugs. They fight each other and slaughter innocent civilians. Some are based on race, some ethnicity and some bring race and crime together with drugs and motorcycles.

Marlon Brando in the Wild One looks quaint by today's standards. Westside Story is a picnic in the park compared to the violence and killing of our gangs. Crips and Bloods get lots of publicity and MS-13 represents imported gang activity in LA and across the nation. However, right now in Los Angeles the gang of the moment is The Mongols--a violent assemblage of Latino motorcycle thugs.

They are not necessarily the biggest or baddest gang. They are in the news because law enforcement believes that they have found a new and potent weapon in combating their terror. Threats of jail don't stop them. Repeated arrests don't even slow them down. The violence of La Vida Loca is no deterrent. So what do we do with intractable criminals who fear neither law nor death? We have a plan.

You see, they made a fatal mistake in their development. They designed a logo, a visible emblem of their criminal association. And then they did what any smart entrepreneurs--criminals or regular (increasingly difficult to tell the difference)--would do; they trademarked their logo. I suppose they did this in an abundance of caution, reserving the right to sue if some other gang misappropriated their sign. Normally they shoot the competition but maybe they thought they could go make few bucks by using the legal system.

This is where we got them. Some judge took their logo away, confiscated it, seized their trademark. Where injunctions hadn't been observed, where jail hadn't deterred, where drive-by shootings didn't discourage, there is nothing, the anti-crime mavens of Los Angeles concluded, like the prospect of being sued for illegal use of a trademark to keep violent motorcycle gangs in line. I'm sure the Mongols are quaking in their steel-toed boots.

Who knew that intellectual property lawyers would be in the forefront of fighting crime? Well, I guess there is a kind of precedent. Al Capone went down as a tax cheat not a mobster murderer. It could work. I just wonder though, how much hard time do you get for trademark infringement?