21–30 of 44 posts
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.
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 o…
> 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?
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.
> Momfuku’s Chang, who is of Korean descent
> Caleb Wang, who grew up between Chicago and Shanghai, recently revamped MìLà’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?
These jars are clearly labeled “Momofuku”. I’m not even aware they’re called chili crunch. Momofuku clearly seems to be the actual trademark.
And it’s not even original, they wanted customers to draw assocations between them and the famed Momofuku Ando.
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.
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
> 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 MìLà’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…
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.
It also seems like something you can learn to make yourself pretty easily?