Federal lawsuit could force Sebastopol chili crisp sauce company to close shop
SEBASTOPOL — A small chili crisp sauce company out of Sebastopol is facing a federal lawsuit that could force it to close up shop.
It all stems from a trademark issue with two companies that share similar names.
Lani Chan and Nathan Bender started making jars of chili crisp during the pandemic. The name Big Spoon Sauce Co. was inspired by Bender's mom.
"It started with my mom essentially eating it out of the jar with a big spoon," Bender said.
They were in the process of getting their company name trademarked when they got a call from Big Spoon Roasters, a nut butter company from North Carolina, last October.
"At first, we were trying to assure them," Chan said. "This must be a misunderstanding. We're a really small company in California. We don't have a lot of retail, and we didn't believe there was any crossover between Chinese pantry condiments and peanut butter."
Talks continued into this year, and according to Chan, she offered to give up the company name but they needed time and money to make that happen.
"We were willing to rebrand and we still are," she said.
Chan says they were hoping for an amicable solution, but her worst fears came true last month.
"They skipped so many steps with this," she added. "They could've opposed our trademark in court. They could've filed a cease-and-desist. They didn't do either of those things that would've been the logical step for enforcing your trademark rights. They just went full federal lawsuit."
According to Big Spoon Roasters, they explored every option to resolve the conflict, but this became the only path forward. On Instagram posts, the North Carolina company detailed their position, saying Chan and Bender's company name caused market confusion since both were pantry products and condiments. Big Spoon Sauce Co., though, hoped this wouldn't escalate to a federal lawsuit.
"It came in the mail, and it was devastating," Bender said. "It was the biggest gut punch because they made a lot of allegations that were not part of the conversation at any point."
Chan and Bender have hired attorneys both in California and North Carolina to try to fight this legal battle. They're worried, though, that this could signal the end to their labor of love.
"So if they don't drop the lawsuit and they want to pursue this fight in court, this will be the end of our business for sure," Chan said. "And not just financially, but emotionally, too. This has been very draining."
