VANCOUVER – When Commercial Drive businessman Bill Pomeroy took some photos of the iconic East Van cross and hung them in his window, he didn’t expect to ignite a controversy about ownership of public images.
He was selling a few copies at his Artrageous framing store until last week, when he got a surprise visit from Rocco Dipopolo, a former Hells Angel prospect who claimed to have copyrighted the neon East Van cross at Sixth and Clark.
“I have taken a photograph of a public sign. He has copyrighted the same cross with the text. But I am not duplicating his logo, I am duplicating the sign,” Pomeroy said Monday. “It is all quite confusing.”
The City of Vancouver holds a trademark for the neon cross by artist Ken Lum that was installed in January 2010.
And the city has no problem with people taking photos of public art pieces, says manager of communications Barb Floden.
“In fact, we like it when people do that – they are there for the public to enjoy,” Floden said Monday.
Dipopolo did register something called “East Van Inc. + Original Cross” with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office on Jan. 12, 2010 – almost five months before the City of Vancouver got the trademark from the same office for Lum’s sculpture.
An angry Dipopolo said Monday that the image of the cross was first used almost 20 years ago by a Hells Angels puppet club of which he was a member at the time.
“So you seriously want to get into a conversation about why the City of Vancouver has an old gang sign up at Sixth and Clark, why [the city] paid $390,000 to get an old East Van sign that belonged to us? Remember the puppet club for the Hells Angels – remember that 20 years ago?” said Dipopolo, who added he no longer has any gang links.
He said Lum “took that design off a God damn, f—ing park bench. Okay. That design belongs to us – I got a tattoo on my arm from 1993. So where did I get the design from – a park bench?”
After checking with the city’s legal department, Floden said the East Van design is registered “as an `Official Mark’ under the Trademark Act.
“This means that any registration such as the one made by Mr. Dipopolo is not really relevant since, like the `City of Vancouver’ mark and `Stanley Park,’ only the city has the legal authority to permit or prohibit the use of the mark,” Floden said.
“Uses of the mark prior to it being registered as an official mark are grandfathered, so Mr. Dipopolo may have a legal right to continue using it, but he no longer has the authority to prevent his competitors from using it.”
She said the city obtained the official mark status in consultation with Lum because of others trying to claim legal ownership of the image.
Insp. Andy Richards, a biker expert with Port Moody police, confirmed that a gang called the East Enders, of which Dipopolo was a member, used the same image back in the early 1990s.
“Many of them became members of the Hells Angels and some didn’t. He is one that did not. That was their logo – their colours of sorts – and they were very protective of it even 20 years ago,” Richards said.
He said Dipopolo would still be considered a Hells Angel associate because his twin Damiano, another former East Ender, is a full-patch Kelowna Angel.
Pomeroy said he has learned a lot about the East Van cross since he displayed his photos of Lum’s art piece. Some customers have told him they remember the East Van image being used as far back as the 1950s.
He said he actually took his photos at the request of customers who wanted pictures of it. He also sells cards of other famous Vancouver images.
“One night, I went and got a really good photo from underneath the SkyTrain bridge with the sign in the background. Then using a zoom lens, I zoomed in on the cross so it is kind of on an angle. It looks awesome. I had so many comments,” he said.
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