British restaurant chain Pho surrenders trademark after being slammed on TikTok for ‘going after’ independent Vietnamese businesses [Video]

06:47 EDT 22 Oct 2024, updated 07:18 EDT 22 Oct 2024

British-founded Vietnamese restaurant chain Pho has filed a request to surrender its trademark on the word ‘pho’, Femail can exclusively reveal.

The UK chain, founded in 2005 by Stephen and Juliette Wall after they travelled to Vietnam and fell in love with the slow-simmered broth, has applied to drop the trademark following mounting backlash on social media.

Critics threatened to ‘boycott’ the brand for restricting Vietnamese restaurant owners from using and profiting off the term ‘pho’ in their branding, despite phở being the national dish of the southeast Asian country.

A representative told Femail: ‘We have always loved the Vietnamese food and culture that Pho has been inspired by and have been listening to the comments from the past week.’

‘We understand the concerns that have been raised and have today filed a request to the Intellectual Property Office to surrender our registered trademark on the use of ‘pho.’