Pho is widely celebrated as the quintessential national dish of Vietnam, symbolizing the country’s rich culinary heritage and enjoyed by people of all backgrounds. In 2007, “Pho” was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. As defined in Oxford Learner’’s Dictionary, “PHO is a type of Vietnamese soup, usually served with rice noodles, slices of beef or chicken, and herbs”.
Founded in 2005 by Stephen and Juliette after traveling to Vietnam and fell in love with the slow-simmered broth, The UK restaurant Chain now has 45 outlets, selling thousands of bowls of pho per week across Britain under the name “Pho Holdings Ltd.”.
The company has trademarked several variations of phrases that involve the word “Pho” since 2005. It registered the first trademark “Pho and device” for services related to restaurant and foods in class 43 with the UK's Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) in May, at the same year it was founded. Three months later, the company registered the second trademark “Pho and device” for products, among many others, like rice, noodle products, and noodle soups in class 30. In March 2007, it made the registration for the third trademark containing only the word “Pho” for services related to restaurant and foods in class 39 and class 43. In September 2011, it continued to register the fourth trademark “Pho and device” for among many others, products like rice and noodles, noodles soup in class 30 and services related to restaurant and foods in class 39 and 43. The company obtained 4 trademark certificates in November 2005, February 2006, May 2008, and October 2012 respectively.
In 2013, Mo Pho - a London–based Vietnamese restaurant, received a legal letter from Pho Holdings requesting it changes its name as it contained one word “Pho” - due to trademark infringement. Pho Holdings stating that it had not trademarked the Vietnamese dish, just the brand identity and logo to protect business. Because of the public outage, the chain admitted to making a mistake and tweeted they had dropped the dispute against the now-permanently closed Mo Pho, according to The Guardian.
After almost 2 decades, Vietnamese businesses in the UK are finally able to have “pho” in their names without risking legal reprisal. The issue resurfaced in 2024, a London - based Vietnamese Tiktoker @iamyenlikethemoney, called out the restaurant in a video for trademarking a culturally significant word. She stressed that trademarking “pho” is akin to claiming ownership to “fish and chips”, “sushi” - which are likewise “genetic” terms or descriptive terms in Intellectual Property. The video has since gone viral with over 2.6 millions views and thousands of comments expressing similar sentiments. As receiving backlash on social media due to that video, the chain released a statement saying that it would “never attempt” to trademark “pho” - Vietnamese’s national dish and how it is spelled there - and that it doesn’t belong to anyone but the people of Vietnam.
Since then, as per the UKIPO, the company filed a request to surrender its trademark on the word, reported British newspaper The Daily Mail on Oct 22. The process was officially completed two days later, meaning the Vietnamese word is now free and available for all businesses in the UK to use.
This case raises some critical issues: how did the UKIPO examine the non-descriptiveness of the “Pho” trademark in this case and how can a national dish be trademarked for a restaurant business serving that dish and other relevant foods? How do similar cases play out in other countries? This could provide a comparative perspective on cultural terms and trademarks.
