TLDR: Summary
In the original decision in favor of the club's first amendment rights, the Justice Department was ordered to pay $253,206 in legal fees to the attorneys who challenged it. On July 11, prosecutors filed an appeal, claiming that "a select group of the gang, so-called 'full-patched' members," had obtained federal trademark protection for "two marks used by the gang to identify members and to terrorize enemies." The filing called the Mongols' registration "an audacious, novel move." The original case dates back to 2008, when then-U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien in his own novel move tried to seize the Mongols trademarks, saying that "If the court grants our request... then if any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back." That attempt failed, as outlined above. The club has temporarily shut down its website, www.devilsdiciples.org "because the Department of Justice has felt it necessary to include us in their witch hunt we have to be careful what we do and show, so until we beat them in court, we are going dark. One account is that when one of the supposed Captain America bikes went for auction he immediately denounced it as a fake, and saved an unwary bidder $1.4 million.
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