Chili Crisp, Chili Crunch, and Who Should Own a Name of a Culture’s Condiment [Video]

In the last two months, three stories about intellectual property and food have leapt off the grocery shelf and into newspaper headlines. Most recently, Momofuku — the consumer packaged goods arm of David Chang’s culinary empire — purchased the trademark “chile crunch” as well as filing for “chili crunch” and sending cease-and-desist letters to some small businesses that were using these terms on their own commercial chili oils. This is the one currently dominating the food sections of every major newspaper.

Earlier this month, Taste proclaimed, “We Need to Talk about Trader Joe’s.” This story detailed several harrowing scenarios where the company was, in the words of writer Adam Reiner, “hijacking the ethnic food aisle and flooding the market with cheap knockoffs.” Their practices included asking small, minority-owned businesses for samples and enticing them with the notion of having their products carried by a significant national retailer. After several months, Trader Joe’s would release a private label “dupe” …