Outlaw motorcycle club wins $78,000 court case for trademark infringement

A global online marketplace has been ordered by the Australian Federal Court to pay more than $78,000 in damages to the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for infringing its trademark.

Key points:

• Stickers, T-shirts and face masks sold on the website were found to infringe on the Hells Angels trademark
• A Redbubble spokesperson said it was considering appealing the “disappointing” decision
• This is the second time Redbubble has been found infringing on the motorcycle club trademark

Redbubble, which sells user-submitted artwork printed on items including clothing, mugs and bed linen, was found by Federal Court to have violated the illegal motorcycle club trademark by displaying items for sale featuring its mark and logo in 2020 and 2021. .

This isn’t the first time this has happened, with Redbubble being ordered to pay the motorcycle club $5,000 in damages in 2019.

According to court documents, Hells Angels trademark officer Gavin Hansen purchased the goods from the trademark infringing website, which was then delivered to his address in Queensland.

Mr Hansen purchased two T-shirts, a canvas print and a set of coasters in May 2020, and an acrylic block and another T-shirt in October 2020 that had the words “Hells Angels” or something similar – which would violate trademark law.

This was accepted by Redbubble, according to court documents.

The poster design for sale on Redbubble infringes on the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club trademark. (Provided: Australian Federal Court )

Mr Hansen also purchased a face mask with the trademark winged skull on it and showed court screenshots of other items for sale that infringe on the club’s trademark.

According to court documents, 11 cases of trademark infringement were found.

Redbubble Assistant General Counsel James Toy said Hansen was one of two users with an Australian address who purchased the item, which was on the website undetected from January 15, 2020 to January 5, 2021.

Mr Toy told the court that none of the Redbubble users offering the trademarked images for sale had an Australian address linked to their account.

According to court documents, three of the seven third-party seller accounts were terminated by Redbubble months before Hells Angels began trial.

Mr Toy told the court that the content operations team, which moderated the user-submitted image, did not capture the artwork uploaded by one user because neither the title nor the tag of the artwork included the words Hells Angels, but was given the name “Villain Motorcycle Club”. .

He provides evidence to show the website has taken steps to improve measures to prevent and prevent the infringement of other people’s intellectual property rights and is beta testing a tool to scan and detect copyrighted images.

According to court documents, if the Hells Angels had notified Redbubble about the image, they would have taken steps to remove access to the web page displaying the image.

In his final judgment, Judge Andrew Greenwood said that Redbubble would be open to “highly sophisticated knowledge” of the platform to task someone to see if further examples of “Hells Angels” or logos had been added and then deactivated the page. .

“In circumstances where there has been due process following the resulting infringement and injunction… Redbubble may prudently have deployed someone to carry out the forensic search that has just been described expressly for the purpose of managing its obligations to ensure that it acts in accordance with the law through its website ,” said Judge Greenwood.

In his judgment, he accepts Redbubble has earned very little financially from the product.

He gave the club $8,250 in nominal damages and $70,000 in additional damages.

A Redbubble spokesman said it was considering an appeal because it was “disappointed with some aspects of the decision”.

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