A Washington, D.C., judge has awarded control of the Proud Boys’ trademarks to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. The February 3 decision comes after a protracted legal battle stemming from the hate group’s acts of vandalism and intimidation against the historic Black church.
In December 2020, Proud Boys members targeted the Metropolitan AME Church, tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter banner displayed on its property. The church subsequently filed a lawsuit, alleging the group’s actions constituted a hate crime and sought damages for the destruction of property and the emotional distress caused to its congregation.
In a decisive victory for the church, Judge Tanya Jones Bosier of Washington DC’s superior court transferred ownership of the group’s trademarks to the Metropolitan AME Church. This was due to the Proud Boys reportedly failing to pay the default $2.8 million judgment from the original trial. Bosier’s move effectively strips the Proud Boys of their ability to profit from their name and symbols, while granting the Metropolitan AME Church the right to utilize or repurpose these trademarks as it sees fit.
According to The Guardian:
Bosier’s ruling on Monday recognized a lawsuit filed last year by the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, on behalf of the church that asserted the far-right militia had not paid up.
The group “engaged in fraudulent activity to prevent the church from collecting the judgment”, the lawsuit stated, “including terminating the Proud Boys entity and surrendering its trademark registration”.
The group must seek permission from the church before it can use its name or traditional symbols for any revenue-creating venture, according to Bosier’s ruling, which was reported by the New York Times. Proud Boys usually dress in black polo shirts with a yellow laurel leaf as their logo.