4 ms·
Right--there's actually a principle in U.S. trademark law[1] that can prevent registration of a trademark if it has a generic meaning in a foreign language. As
by matthewmcg 12y ago
Right--there's actually a principle in U.S. trademark law[1] that can prevent registration of a trademark if it has a generic meaning in a foreign language.
As one court[2] explained: "Because of the diversity of the population of the United States, coupled with temporary visitors, all of whom are part of the United States marketplace, commerce in the United States utilizes innumerable foreign languages. No merchant may obtain the exclusive right over a trademark designation if that exclusivity would prevent competitors from designating a product as what it is in the foreign language their customers know best."
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_foreign_equivalents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_foreign_equivalents
[2] http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1211778.html http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1211778.html
- jasonlotito 12y agoYou guys both just needed to read the article: "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."
- psykovsky 12y agoMatter of opinion. Like Tabasco.
- tlrobinson 12y agoBut is Sriracha actually a type of sauce in Thailand, or is it just the name of a city? If it's the latter I don't think this would apply.
- aroch 12y agoBoth, but only because the US-made Sriracha sauce is imported by the ton.
- jahewson 12y agoNo... read the Wikipedia article linked to above, Siracha is believed to have been created in Si Racha in the 1930s.
- coralreef 12y agoTheres a documentary about Sriracha which looks into the origins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOAx58LBDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOAx58LBDo Basically its not clear where the origin is.
- sirn 12y agoIt is a type of sauce in Thailand with somewhat complex origin. The sauce was created and is popular locally in Sriracha for long (originally known as Nam Prik Sriracha) but the sauce was popularize across the country by Sriraja Panich, who is the first to produce the sauce commercially as Sriraja Sauce. Sriraja Panich couldn't trademark the brand due to law in Thailand disallowing region name to be used as a trademark. This fact spawn several brand using the name Sriracha sauce and caused the name Sriracha sauce to become a type of a sauce here in Thailand. Sriracha city even put the "town of delicious sauce" as their official motto. Many Thais still consider Sriraja Panich as the only genuine Sriracha sauce maker (even though they're now own by Thai Theparos), and do not have a good impression of the US-made Sriracha sauce brand.
- krallja 12y agoHow does Tabasco Sauce get away with it, given that it's made from tabasco peppers (named after the Mexican state of Tabasco)?
- unprepare 12y agoaccording to their website[1], the founder of the company also was the creator of the name tabasco Not sure if their website is the most reliable source of such information, but thats what it claims. Actually, i looked further into it, and found an article[2] with this passage (the whole article is pretty interesting): >And on July 29, 1918, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Gaidry v. McIlhenny Co., 253 F. 613, recognized McIlhenny as the exclusive holder of the right to sell pepper sauce with the mark “Tabasco.” In short, the court found that despite the geographic descriptiveness of the word Tabasco, it had acquired a secondary meaning to the public as an source identifier, namely identifying McIllhenny’s red pepper sauce. [1]http://www.tabasco.com/mcilhenny-company/about/ http://www.tabasco.com/mcilhenny-company/about/ [2]http://www.vegastrademarkattorney.com/2007/10/story-of-tabasco-trademark.html http://www.vegastrademarkattorney.com/2007/10/story-of-tabas...