Yeah I don’t get it. He’s remarkable and brilliant because he won’t trademark something that’s un-trademarkable? And didn’t come up with? And isn’t unique to his product? And brands that pre-exist his are “rip-offs”?
3 Likes
Great. Now I’m hungry.
Read McIlhenny’s Gold, which is a history of the company behind Tabasco sauce. Basically, lots of competitors made the very justifiable claim that “Tabasco” was a generic name, but it turned out that John Avery McIlhenny was an old hunting buddy of Teddy Roosevelt and Roosevelt “suggested” to the judge involved to side with McIlhenny.
1 Like
In the 1990s in the Midwest (when it was new to the region) people quite often called it “Rooster Sauce” in real life because most people didn’t know how to say sriracha.
1 Like
LA Times got this story wrong because they don’t know the background about why Tran chose to name his hot sauce Sriracha. Tran got the name from a city in Thailand that is famous in Asia for a style of hot sauce called, “Sriracha” (not pronounced Sir Racha but pronounced Siri Cha). The original thai version of this sauce is much different than what Tran created, it’s sweet and spicy. Tran didn’t trademark the name because he knew he couldn’t, the thai style Sriracha has been sold in the States since the early seventies.
He’s smart though to spin it as “I’m so good I don’t trademark”, everybody is jumping on this story with that angle.
2 Likes
I tried the TJ’s version once, and it’s not nearly as good as Rooster brand.
I’ve certainly heard that brand referred to as “hot cock sauce.”
Indeed, the history of the Tabasco trademark is fraught with controversy.
EDIT: Oops, I see @jhbadger beat me to it.
Am I the only one who hates the stuff?
Huy Fong brand or all brands of sriracha?
Because I have never really liked Huy Fong but love Grand Mountain.
GM is a Thai sriracha. It’s thinner, smoother and less like ketchup.
do not buy this fucking shit. it’s about as spicy as pepto bismol.
Yes. This. There’s some IP abuse out there, but trademark’s aren’t it. I’m glad it’s worked out well for Mr Tran! – but this is really a narrow exception. I’ve chased off (politely) two people using my company’s brand name in the last year.
Sriracha leggings FTW
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
