[HN Gopher] Trademark bully': Momofuku turns up heat on others s...
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Trademark bully': Momofuku turns up heat on others selling 'chili
crunch'
Author : alon_honig
Score : 42 points
Date : 2024-04-06 20:24 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| softwaredoug wrote:
| These jars are clearly labeled "Momofuku". I'm not even aware
| they're called chili crunch. Momofuku clearly seems to be the
| actual trademark.
| ukz wrote:
| And it's not even original, they wanted customers to draw
| assocations between them and the famed Momofuku Ando.
| alephnerd wrote:
| And they aren't even Asian owned. It's the family that own's
| Zabar's in Upper West Side that runs Momofuku. It's wannabe
| Asian food for Ang Mohs
|
| Laoganma and Cai Hua Xiang Shi Xiang Zhao Tian Jiao are
| cheaper and tastier
|
| https://www.fastcompany.com/90945101/momofuku-ceo-
| marguerite...
| kristjansson wrote:
| I won't contest laoganma, but I'm pretty sure Chang still
| maintains ownership, and Mariscal is just the CEO?
| alephnerd wrote:
| > Chang still maintains ownership
|
| Based on their past couple rounds with Siddhi and ACG I'd
| doubt he has majority ownership given the margins and
| financing terms for FMCG.
| melq wrote:
| His first restaurant was called 'Momofuku Noodle Bar', named
| as an homage to Ando for inventing instant noodles/ramen. I
| don't think there were many Americans in 2004 (or today) who
| have even heard of Ando, I don't think he was trying to trade
| on his name.
| lgats wrote:
| MomoIP LLC only applied for the trademark about a week ago--
| after Pont Neuf Productions LLC trademark of the term wasn't kept
| up-to-date and expired in February.
|
| https://uspto.report/TM/98475401
| p00b wrote:
| Also the one they do own ("chile crunch") was ironically
| acquired as a result of their own infringement
|
| > Momofuku acquired "chile crunch" in 2023 from the Denver
| company Chile Colonial, LLC as part of a legal settlement.
| Chile Colonial had taken legal action against Momofuku for
| "trademark infringement, unfair competition", according to
| court documents.
| killingtime74 wrote:
| Just to be clear this is just a trademark not the recipe or
| anything. Trademarks can be challenged, especially one this
| new. Just because it's been granted now doesn't really mean too
| much
| coffeebeqn wrote:
| Isn't Lao Gan Ma like 30+ years earlier on this ?
| alephnerd wrote:
| They use "Chili Crisp", not "Chili Oil".
| coolsunglasses wrote:
| There's no difference, you can go look at an Amazon listing
| for Lao Gan Ma and it says this:
|
| "Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp (Chili Oil Sauce)"
| alephnerd wrote:
| The English language branding on the jar says "Chili
| Crisp". I'm literally looking at it in my pantry right now
| because now I wanna make Laoganma and Peanut Butter Toast
| coffeebeqn wrote:
| Is that a good sandwich ?
| alephnerd wrote:
| Yep. Anything with Xiang La Cui is great.
|
| PB+Ham or Turkey+Pickle+Cheddar is great as well
| Darmani wrote:
| They sued a friend's company as well. He wrote very vividly about
| what it's like to be on the receiving end. I've
| stayed silent for too long. And I'm not going to stay silent
| anymore. A few weeks ago we got sued by Momofuku. It
| was one of the most painful experiences of my life. After getting
| IBS, I decided to leave my six-figure job in Silicon Valley, to
| venture into the Biotech and Food-as-Medicine world in hopes of
| finding a solution. I gave up financial stability, relationships,
| and sanity to get Redbloom off the ground. I still remember the
| day Redbloom was 3 days away from dying, and on the day I was
| supposed to shut down the company, we went viral. Hundreds of
| orders flooded over the holidays and I had to juggle between
| pissed customers and fundraising. This was winter.. funds were
| closed, everyone told me we weren't going to close the round
| until march. We closed the round 1/15. From Thanksgiving all the
| way to Lunar New Year. I didnt' see my family, I didn't see my
| friends. I slept on the factory floor. I made my ops team work 15
| hours a day to make the facility expansion deadlines. Redbloom
| has grown beyond my control to the point it became impossible to
| find a co-founder - I was a single parent. That legal letter from
| Momofuku felt like a knife being held to my kid's throat. The
| worst part about it was we couldn't even speak up about it - were
| we the only ones? do we have a target on our backs before we can
| even walk? Everyone close to me was like "what did you do?"
| The funny thing is - we don't even compete against Momofuku.
| People with IBS can't eat Momofuku. I'm here trying to create
| medicine to reduce gut sensitivity, but instead of making a
| pressed pill, our medicine form factor is chili oil (for you
| science nerds, we microencapsulate capsaicin with oleic acid to
| provide a cushion for the TRPV1 receptors in your gut so prevent
| autoimmunity in the short run, allowing the capsaicin to reduce
| visceral hypersensitivity in the long run). Yet, David Chang
| still found a way to eat away from our R&D budget required for
| clinical studies... Today, we found out that they
| are suing multiple asian food founders for various things. This
| has gone beyond a simple lawsuit. A hole is being torn in the
| AAPI community right now. AAPI founders are supposed to support
| each other, not fight each other over centuries of culture that
| spans beyond our generation. This is no longer about me, it's no
| longer about Redbloom. It's bigger than that now. The
| articulation of our asian heritage in the western world is at
| stake. And we will stay silent no longer. Homiah -
| Michelle Tew MiLa - Jennifer Liao, Caleb Wang And
| all the other AAPI founders who we experiencing this. We are here
| to stand by you! We are here to speak up. and We are here to
| support the AAPI community.
|
| Reposting from
| https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephanjpeng_trademark-bully-...
| mvdtnz wrote:
| > I made my ops team work 15 hours a day to make the facility
| expansion deadlines.
|
| Am I supposed to be rooting for this person?
| waffleiron wrote:
| As someone with a biomedical background, the "science"
| explanation isn't giving me much faith either. They should
| have just given a DOI to a relevant scientific paper instead.
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| My house is two different AAPI backgrounds and we love to
| enable other AAPI business. We'll share your stuff among our
| friends and community. Good luck!
| mvdtnz wrote:
| I've never heard of "chilli crunch" but the description and
| photos in this article indicate it's just a regular Chinese
| chilli oil, which is commonly very heavy on the solids. And
| obviously goes back a long time.
| tptacek wrote:
| This is extraordinarily silly. Momofuku is not going to dominate
| the market for chili crisp, and that's what it's called: "chili
| crisp". Not "chili crunch". Just don't call your product that.
|
| You might get hives from this kind of trademark hardball if
| Momofuku was the market leader. But they're not even a serious
| player. Lao Gan Ma owns the category.
| softwaredoug wrote:
| It also seems like something you can learn to make yourself
| pretty easily?
| killingtime74 wrote:
| They haven't got exclusive rights to the recipe, it's just
| the name
| seam_carver wrote:
| I love Trader's Joe's chili onion crunch.
| karaterobot wrote:
| > Tew said her chili crunch is based on her Malaysian family's
| recipe, where she grew up.
|
| > Momfuku's Chang, who is of Korean descent
|
| > Caleb Wang, who grew up between Chicago and Shanghai, recently
| revamped MiLa's line of sauces
|
| > Fly By Jing's Gao is an advisor to Tew and investor in Homiah.
| Born in Chengdu, Sichuan, Gao says that chili condiments have
| existed in China for a very long time
|
| Whenever they talk about people in the food industry, they list
| their country of birth or their family origin. With the arguable
| exception of that last example, I'm not sure I understand why
| doing so is relevant. Is there a political or national component
| to this case of trademark bullying? If so, the article ought to
| inform me about it. Would the grounds for trademark infringement
| be different if either party were born in different countries? My
| assumption is no, so it feels like an odd and purposefully
| preoccupation on the part of The Guardian. Do they do this for
| all articles?
| brewdad wrote:
| In this case I think it is to point out the absurdity of trying
| to claim ownership of a condiment that has existed across
| multiple Asian cultures for centuries.
| paleotrope wrote:
| Probably some oversensitivity to the idea of "cultural
| appropriation " which is interesting considering the main
| ingredients besides Sichuan peppercorn is chili peppers .
| infecto wrote:
| Momofuku was always underwhelming for me. This only adds to it.
|
| I do find it surprising to be able to trademark words like this.
| I could see it if you invented a category of things but chili
| crunch to me is the same as chili crips and the product has
| existed for a long time.
| xnx wrote:
| Momofuku probably thinking of how the non-trademark status of
| "sriracha" made it easier for competitors:
| https://www.lawinc.com/sriracha-trademark-history
|
| The difference here seems to be that Momofuku is not the original
| or the most popular.
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