My lawyer is sending “Aloha Poke Co” a cease-and-desist letter. I own the trademark, "F&%$$ Bums" and we request that they cease and desist being f&% &^% bums, despite its prior use in their native Chicagoan.
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Aloha Pokénom
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I should think not. I would think trademarking their entire name (“Aloha Poke Stop”) would’ve protected them from this guy’s lawsuit, but in my totally non-expert opinion they shouldn’t need any protection anyhow.
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Same basic smell and taste as this winner:
Is this turkey telling everyone in HI they can’t commercially use words or phrases that have been in common use for over a century because they have trademarked them?
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If I’m in the midwest, poke is not something I’m interested in eating.
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Miso Salmon, I chews you!
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Chicago’s ‘Aloha Poke Co’ wants Hawaiians to stop using the words ‘aloha’ and 'poke’
In other news, hell froze over this morning.
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The Chicago business apparently first opened its first place in 2016. So leaving aside “Aloha” and “poke” having been in use for a while, the Chicago place and its trademark don’t even pre-date any of the most recently opened restaurants to whom they’re sending C&D letters over the trademark. That’s pretty outrageous.
It’s doubly ridiculous. It’s like trying to get a trademark over, say, “Frank’s Diner,” when your name isn’t Frank, knowing it’s an incredibly common business name, but also knowing that all the existing businesses with that name pre-date yours. Plus the whole cultural appropriation thing.
That, by itself, isn’t necessarily terrible. The whole thing about trademarks is that they’re supposed to be very limited in scope and unique in use, so it really should just be an issue of preventing future competitors from fraudulently trying to benefit from creating confusion with a unique business/product. “Apple” is a common word, but “Apple Computers” was fine because there were no other “Apple” computer businesses; no one was using the word in that particular context. If they had tried to trademark it as a name of a fruit-selling business, that would have been a whole other ball of wax. In this case, there are a lot of poke shops, and “Aloha” is a common name in Hawaiian themed businesses. So there were a number of “Aloha Poke” restaurants before he trademarked the name. The trademark should never have been given in the first place just because of that.
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Can you say “cultural appropriation”?
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Oh, right, because customer’s going to Poke Stops in Anchorage and Bellingham might get confused that they aren’t, in fact, going to one in Chicago?
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Where ‘aloha’ is a Hawaiian word within an aboriginal language and ‘poke’ both a word in that language and a cultural custom and tradition, I don’t see how the company from Chicago has any grounds to stand upon.
Given the ‘UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, I see the converse: that both terms–even together–are representative of a specific aboriginal language and are integral aspects of its historical and cultural traditions.
I’m not an expert in this by any means, but I don’t see how this company–outside of this being akin to a SLAPP-like suit–has any leg to stand on…
Some of this is explained here: www.achp.gov/docs/un-declaration.pdf
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I’d generally agree with you. I’m from the west coast of the US, and was visiting a cousin in Arkansas, and he insisted we go to a sushi place in Fayatteville. I was hesitant for obvious reasons, but it was pretty darn good!
Haole privilege 
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We need a law that says if you send a cease and desist letter to someone who was using the name before you, they automatically get everything you own.
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Been done…
https://www.pokenomco.com/
Only if you pay whichever IP trolley has trademarked it. /s
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Meanwhile, the culturally appropriating douchebag in question has a pretty punchable face complete with basic bro backward cap…
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Lol, I should’ve guessed. Man, it’s got to be tough coming up with new good names for businesses that won’t get you sued.
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Federal anti-SLAPP laws and walking back the trademark land-grab would go a long way to fixing these problems.
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Roger that!
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This shit stain totally vapes and drives a WRX.
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