Sriracha Boss On Trademark: Mmmmm, No Thanks

from the techdirt-hero dept

Sriracha, the beautifully flavorful pepper sauce, has a very special place in my fridge, right between the bloody mary mix and the hollandaise sauce. Why? Well, because it bunks with the other breakfast essentials in the Geigner household, that's why. Where else can you find Sriracha? Well, pretty much everywhere else, even incorporated in the products of other food companies, like Subway, Heinz and Frito-Lay. How is this possible? Through, as you might expect, a complicated series of licensing arrangements?

No, it's possible because David Tran, the boss at Sriracha makers Huy Fong Foods, never filed to trademark the Sriracha brand. And he can't be bothered to give any shits about trademarking it today because he's too busy raking in roughly all the money.

Tran, who now operates his family-owned company Huy Fong Foods out of a 650,000-square-foot facility in Irwindale, doesn't see his failure to secure a trademark as a missed opportunity. He says it's free advertising for a company that's never had a marketing budget. It's unclear whether he's losing out: Sales of the original Sriracha have grown from $60 million to $80 million in the last two years alone.

"Everyone wants to jump in now," said Tran, 70. "We have lawyers come and say 'I can represent you and sue' and I say 'No. Let them do it.'" Tran is so proud of the condiment's popularity that he maintains a daily ritual of searching the Internet for the latest Sriracha spinoff.

It's as though Tran were channeling a Techdirt writer with this kind of stuff. The infringement others want him to combat is instead seen as free advertising, propelling sales and spurring on growth coupled with a good-humor attitude towards "rip-offs." We'd accuse him of infringing on our playbook, but that just wouldn't be in the spirit of the example he's setting. Tran goes on to note his belief that more exposure through use of his product's name will mean even further growth.

Some competitors of Tran are confused, and it's kind of funny to hear their reaction.

Tony Simmons, chief executive of the McIlhenny Co., makers of Tabasco, said Tran's Sriracha sauce was the "gold standard" for Sriracha-style sauces, which has largely come to mean any dressing that packs a piquant punch of chili paste, vinegar, garlic and sugar. Simmons was reassured by his lawyers that Tabasco would have no problem releasing a similar sauce using the name Sriracha.

"We spend enormous time protecting the word 'Tabasco' so that we don't have exactly this problem," Simmons said. "Why Mr. Tran did not do that, I don't know."

Well, because he's too busy being the "gold standard" of the thing you're trying to get it on using his brand's name. This means that Tobasco, in this case, is advertising Tran's product for him, all the more so when his is admittedly the best around. How is Simmons not getting this? And the best part of this is that the USPTO has already issued several decisions stating that the single word "sriracha" on its own is now too generic for any of these pretenders to trademark for themselves. Chalk up another victory for Tran, who allowed the use of his brand name so widely that he's effectively protected against someone trying to come along and lock it up.

Well done all around.

Filed Under: advertising, david tran, free advertising, hot sauce, licensing, sharing, sriracha, trademark
Companies: huy fong foods

DailyDirt: Sriracha Apocalypse Watch

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Many people are freaking out about the potential shortage of Sriracha, the popular hot sauce (aka "rooster sauce") that has taken the world by storm, after it was reported that the new Sriracha factory in Irwindale, California, was facing a potential shutdown due to noxious fumes coming from the plant -- generated by chili pepper processing -- that were causing eye and throat irritation, as well as headaches, in nearby residents. A judge has now ordered the makers of Sriracha, Huy Fong Foods Inc., to stop any work that generates irritating fumes. While the smelly factory may not be welcome in Irwindale, at least two other cities (Philadelphia and Denton, TX) have suggested that the makers of Sriracha sauce relocate to their neck of the woods. In the meantime, here are a few links with more information about Sriracha, as well as potential alternative hot sauces.

• Sriracha is made with hybrid jalapeño peppers (processed within a day of being picked), vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic. Sriracha was created in 1980 by David Tran, at the time a recent immigrant from Vietnam, who couldn't find any hot sauces that would satisfy his palate. It took him months to come up with the right formulation for the now well-known Sriracha sauce that's packaged in the distinctive clear bottles with the rooster logo and green caps. [url]
• YouTube filmmaker Griffin Hammond has created a 33-minute documentary about Sriracha. The film -- which features many interviews, a glimpse inside the Sriracha factory, as well as a number of songs and videos dedicated to Sriracha sauce -- can be viewed online for $5 a view. It seems that, until recently, relatively little was known about the company that makes this popular hot sauce. [url]
• "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern thinks Sriracha sauce is overrated. While he does love Sriracha, he says there are many better alternative hot sauces, such as the Marie Sharp line from Belize and Crystal from Louisiana. Other chefs recommend hot sauces such as the Rogue, a super-hot Moruga blood orange and Scorpion chili sauce from High River Sauces, and Tobanjan (Japanese) and Kochujang (Korean) sesame-based hot sauces. And if you just can't get away from Sriracha, you can try the Thailand-made Shark Brand Sriracha sauce. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: chili pepper, crystal, david tran, food, hot sauce, kochujang, marie sharp, rogue, siriracha, tobanjan
Companies: huy fong foods