Chicago poke shop pushes to kapu ‘aloha’

A Chicago-based company that trademarked the name “Aloha Poke” has ignited a social media firestorm and calls for a boycott after sending cease-and-desist letters to local and mainland businesses with similar names.

In two letters obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, a law firm representing Aloha Poke Holdings LLC of Chicago demanded businesses in Hawaii and elsewhere immediately stop using the words “Aloha” and “Aloha Poke” “due to the similarity of the marks … the goods and services and a likelihood of confusion in the marketplace.”

“Aloha Poke would prefer to settle this matter amicably and without court intervention,” wrote Brian Michalek, a patent attorney for Olson & Cepuritis Ltd. in Chicago, requesting businesses not use the words when selling food, products and services and immediately “destroy all packaging, marketing materials, advertising, photographs, Internet usage … and things that bear the designation of ‘Aloha’ or ‘Aloha Poke.’”

Jeff Sampson, owner of Aloha Poke Shop in downtown Honolulu, a small business that opened in November 2016, said, “We got our love letter in January. I ignored it. Sure enough, they reached out to too many people that it blew up in their face. I’m just offended by the fact that you can trademark a name like that and a language. We live aloha. They don’t even know what it means.”

In a statement emailed to the Star-Advertiser and posted on the company’s Facebook page Monday, the Chicago Aloha Poke Co.’s CEO, Chris Birkinshaw, said that the firm has not “attempted to own either the word ‘Aloha’ or the word ‘Poke.’”

“There is zero truth to the assertion that we have attempted to tell Hawaiian-­owned businesses and Hawaiian natives that they cannot use the word Aloha or the word Poke,” the post said. “What we have done is attempted to stop trademark infringers in the restaurant industry from using the trademark ‘Aloha Poke’ without permission. We know that this misinformation has caused a considerable amount of anger and offense among those who care very passionately about their Hawaiian culture. We want to say to them directly how deeply sorry we are that this issue has been so triggering.”

An online petition started by Native Hawaiian activist Dr. Kalamaokaaina Niheu is now calling for a boycott of the Chicago restaurant chain “until they remove aloha and poke from their name.” Nearly 10,000 signed the petition as of press deadline Monday.

“They essentially want our food, our culture, our spice and they want our language but they want to discard our people. We as people in Hawaii know aloha is used everywhere,” she said. “It’s like trademarking the word ‘hello.’ People have the right to their food, culture, heritage and their language.”

The first business to change its name due to the threat of litigation was a Washington state restaurant, which last year dropped ‘Aloha” from its former name, Aloha Poke. It’s now called Fairhaven Poke.

On Friday, Aloha Poke Shop in Anchorage, Alaska, run by Native Hawaiians, re-branded to Lei’s Poke Stop.

“It has been an uproar of our people. We’re just blown away right now. The words meant a lot to us,” said Tasha Kahele, who runs the business with her husband and six children. “We use the word ‘aloha’ in our business not to profit from it, but as an identifier in the community. The aloha spirit is very unique to our culture. It’s a way of living for us.”

Noe Tamon, who has run Aloha Poke in Waianae since August 2015, is dreading receiving a letter from the malihini company, founded by Zach Friedlander, who is no longer a part of the business.

“I’m pretty upset about it. I created my company before he created his, so I don’t think it’s fair that you’re going to come into the restaurant business and take everyone’s name from them,” she said. “Not all of us have that amount of money to trademark our stuff and pay all the lawyers to claim the rights to that name. It’s totally wrong. They’re not even Hawaiian.”

Trademark infringement letter by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd