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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
They use both terms, "Chili Oil" as well as "Chili Crisp", for slightly different products. I also prefer "Spicy Chili Crisp" but I'd still be happy using "Chili Oil with Fermented Soybeans" in its place for pretty much any dish. Their entirely product lineup has:
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.
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.
you would think that 10+ years after the oracle/google java suit and the subsequent times automatic deletion of casual communications at any company with value it can lose programmers would stop loudly yelling their unvarnished opinion about how the law works, or worse, their ideas of how the law _should_ work after they thought about it for one to two minutes, but the comment thread here would prove you wrong.
and i will too!
ianal, but seemingly nobody’s even pointed in the right direction here. momofuku just got done being sued by some denver dingus for use of the term. the resolution of that suit ended up with them being assigned ownership of the mark “chile crunch”. they did not just wake up and decide this was their term and that they should start suing people for fun. once ownership is assigned, though, you have to _actively_ defend it, unless you wanna keep paying more lawyers to fight off more dinguses. basically a game of spoons here.
i don’t think the details of all communications are public, all i’ve seen is assertions that they sent cease and desists, but i don’t think i’ve heard anything about licensing terms? just letting people use the term without asking means dinguses can take a shot, but you can keep defense up by licensing the trademark, which doesn’t have to be at an abusive rate, but does come with terms that would absolutely upset the hell out of a competitor. but again, not really another option.
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
MìLà - 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.
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.
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!
Your friend should realize that a basic GAPS diet would resolve 99.9% of their IBS issues. Literally throw some chicken and bone broth in an instant pot and eat that daily. A little salt. That's it. Do it for a year. Hell, do it for a month.
When your gut health bounces back, start to mix it up again.
" I didnt' see my family, I didn't see my friends. I slept on the factory floor."
Oh, and maybe stop doing that too. Chronic stress equals chronic inflammation equals IBS and an array of other issues.
> 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 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?
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.
Probably some oversensitivity to the idea of "cultural appropriation " which is interesting considering the main ingredients besides Sichuan peppercorn is chili peppers .
I would assume it's because their background could very much point to the type of cuisine they cook. A US citizen with French parents could grow up eating French cuisine for the majority of their meals, which would then explain why they are a chef cooking French food.
I think in this instance it's showing how these are all very different countries that make their own chili crunch.
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.