Celebrity chef David Chang says he will no longer enforce the trademark for his Chili Crunch condiment.

The change comes after days of criticism, as some said his company, Momofuku, tried to stop business owners from selling their version of a chili potion with Chinese roots.

The company had sent cease-and-desist letters to various businesses that also sold products branded “Chili Crunch,” saying they were infringing on its pending trademark on the term.

“Over the past week, we’ve listened to our community and now understand that the term ‘chili crunch’ has a broad meaning to many people,” a Momofuku spokesperson said. told The Washington Post late Friday. “We are not interested in ‘owning’ cultural terms and will not enforce the trademark going forward.”

Chang gained fame with his Momofuku restaurants, including several in Toronto, and his appearances on food television programs. But its brand has recently expanded to sell packaged goods — many of them slightly upscale from Asian pantry classics like instant noodles and chili crunch.

Business owners and cultural commentators accused Chang of engaging in trademark bullying, particularly against small, fellow Asian mom-and-pop businesses, claiming the well-known condiment.

Michelle Teo recently received a cease-and-desist letter for her company Homia’s ChiliCrunch Condiments.

“When I read it, I think I felt betrayed,” said Teo, who is based in New York. Day 6Brent Bambury of K taped Momofuku in an interview before announcing his withdrawal.

Teo told the CBC she was “pleased to hear” about the company’s decision to stop enforcing the trademark.

But he disagrees with her choice to continue owning it, and instead urges her to retire it altogether. (Momofuku also bought the rights to “Chile Crunch” — with an “E” — last year, from a Denver company that used it for a Mexican-style chili condiment.” — March 29.)

“The terms … are general descriptions of a core part of Asian (and) Asian American culinary tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. I’m grateful that the community has spoken up in support of that fact,” They said.

Momofuku’s Chili Crunch is advertised as a blend of oil, chili flakes and other ingredients such as garlic and shallots. It’s long been Chang’s take on Chinese chili oil, notably known as Chili Crisp.

Small glass containers of Chili Crisp can often be found in Chinese noodle shops along with other common condiments such as soy sauce and rice vinegar. One of the oldest brands, Lao Gan Ma, is often credited with popularizing the sauce in the West in the 1980s.

Teo’s version is called Sambal Chili Crunch. It is inspired by Indonesian sambal chili paste and has ties to the Straits Chinese, who migrated to places like Singapore and the Malaysian state of Penang.

“It was typical of what my grandmother made, but at the same time, it was just taken for granted. It’s just part of the fabric of the culture,” Teo said.

Businesses, communities are falling back.

Reaction to news of the cease-fire and cease-and-desist letters came fast and furious over the past week.

Canadian actor Samo Liu also spoke. Challenging between Momofuku and MìLà for a “blind taste test” of chili crunch products. Liu is the chief content officer of MìLà, which also sells noodles and frozen soup dumplings.

Janine Rane sells a chili crisp product called Hakka Ash for her Toronto-based company Xing Pantry Shortcuts. He termed the move as gatekeeping and anti-competitive. There are also similar non-Asian products, such as South American salsa matcha and Italian chili oil, he said.

“It’s like a big mustard company deciding one day that it’s going to send letters to anyone who uses the term ‘grainy mustard,'” Rane said. Metro Morning David Common.

The Art of Protecting Trademarks

While Momofuku said he would not enforce the trademark, his statement to the Post did not say he would abandon it entirely.

Ken Clarke, an intellectual property lawyer with the Toronto-based law firm Aird & Burles, said the company wants to block it to prevent another business claiming it.

“Having registration is also a good shield, even if it is not used as a sword, because it will prevent third parties from saying that they cannot use their (trademark), because registration means that You have permission to use that trademark,” he said.

If it ever wants to enforce the trademark, the big test for Momofuku will be to prove whether the multiple Chili Crunch products on the market cause consumer confusion — that is, how likely people are to buy another company’s jar. Contains what is labeled “Chili Crunch”. Momofuku’s offer instead.

“If you apply for peanut butter brand peanut butter, they’re going to turn you down,” Clark said.

Flyby Jing, another popular sauce maker in the US, filed for the trademark “Szechuan Chilli Crisp” in 2019, but it was rejected because the US Patent and Trademark Office said The term was descriptive. (The founders of Fly by Jing are also investors in Tew’s Homiah.)

Giving up the “Chile Crunch” trademark would force it to give up “Chile Crunch” as well — “which they paid good money for, no doubt,” Clark said.

IP lawyer Elizabeth Dipchand said the cease-and-desist letter, as described by Teo in the press, seemed rather “heavy-handed” and could have benefited from a more diplomatic approach.

He pointed to the 2021 cease-and-desist letter that Netflix sent to the unlicensed producer. Stranger things bar pop up. Letter It went viral Online because of its baked-in comics and references to the show – even though it was still functionally a C&D.

“The human connection has to come first. And that’s not always something lawyers are necessarily good at,” he said.