And, while everyone appears to be too scared to challenge Third Culture in court, it’s doubtful the bully could win if that were to happen. Instead, he got a trademark on a descriptive phrase. That makes it sound like what Shyu was actually after was a secret recipe and/or trade secret, a la Coca-Cola’s recipe. If anyone else makes a mochi muffin that looks like ours and (is) selling it, that’s who we go after.” It’s how we pay our bills and how we pay our employees.

“It relates back to the one singular product that started our bakery and put us on the map. “We’re not trying to claim any ownership (of) the word mochi or mochiko or muffin,” he said. Third Culture now keeps attorneys on retainer to monitor the trademark. Third Culture co-owner Wenter Shyu said he recognized early on that the bakery should protect its first and most popular product. And yet the USPTO granted the trademark, albeit as a supplemental mark, and Third Culture is out here threatening everyone it can find. So, rewinding, what is a mochi muffin? It’s a muffin made of this rice paste ingredient.Īnd that is, as you will have already guessed, a descriptive phrase that describes the product and is non-distinctive.

It’s a muffin made of - wait for it - mochi! And what is mochi? It’s a kind of rice paste that is used typically in Japan to make little cakes and other foods, often time during seasonal holidays. And that may be because you don’t know what a mochi muffin is. In April, a wave of businesses also received letters from Third Culture, including a tiny home-baking operation in Worcester, Mass.Īlmost all those contacted quickly complied and renamed their products - CA Bakehouse now sells “mochi cakes,” for example - afraid of getting into a label battle with a relatively large, well-resourced business that ships its mochi muffins nationwide.īy now, you may be wondering what the problem is here. Oakland’s Ramen Shop received a cease-and-desist letter from Third Culture several years ago, co-owner Sam White said. Since Third Culture secured the federal trademark to its signature item, the bakery has been quietly working to stop restaurants, bakers and food bloggers across the country from using the words mochi muffins. Third Culture has recently been sending threat notices to, and in at least one case has sued, other small bakeries for the crime of making and selling their own mochi muffins.

Mochi muffins are popular bakery goods, perhaps invented by the owner of a trademark on “mochi muffins”, Third Culture Bakery in California. And, yet, the USPTO seems to regularly grant them.

If the mark doesn’t inform the consumer of a product or service’s origin, and instead describes a generic product, that’s supposed to be a no-no. Now, you’re not supposed to be able to trademark purely descriptive terms for what should be obvious reasons. Or the time a company managed to trademark the term “ Legal Hackers” as it was the company’s name? Yeah, you guessed it: descriptive. ESPN’s “ Saturday Night Football” mark? Also descriptive. Remember the Square Donuts thing? That mark was descriptive. While trademark disputes regularly annoy me for a variety of reasons which I cover on this site, the most annoying ones of all are usually over trademarks that the USPTO never should have granted in the first place. Thu, Jun 9th 2022 07:48pm - Timothy Geigner