Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group convenes inaugural meeting; The Maui News, June 27, 2024

The Maui News; Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group convenes inaugural meeting

"On June 24, the Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group (NHIPWG) comprised of experts in native Hawaiian law, indigenous intellectual property, and cultural practitioners held its first meeting at the Hawai’i State Capitol.

The working group was established following the adoption of HCR108 by the House of Representatives in 2023. This resolution urged the creation of a nine-member working group to study policies and legislation concerning native Hawaiian intellectual property. Representative Darius K. Kila, who introduced HCR108, explained that the formation of the group represents efforts to protect the intellectual property rights of Kānaka Maoli, as well as their cultural expressions, language, and art form."

A Midwestern chain told Hawaiians to stop using ‘Aloha’ with ‘Poke,’ igniting a heated debate; The Washington Post, July 30, 2018

Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post; A Midwestern chain told Hawaiians to stop using ‘Aloha’ with ‘Poke,’ igniting a heated debate

"The lawyers with the firm represented a company from the city, the Aloha Poke Co., that had jumped on one of the latest food trends — selling the Hawaiian staple poke, made from raw marinated ahi tuna — in 2016 and quickly expanded their reach to more than a dozen locations in Chicago and cities such as Milwaukee, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

[Jeffrey] Sampson also operated a poke shop, a luncheonette of 20 seats that he had opened with three friends in downtown Honolulu that shared little in common with the Chicago chain besides the dish and, coincidentally or not, given the commonality of the Hawaiian word, the name. When Sampson and friends opened the luncheonette about a year and a half ago, they had named it the Aloha Poke Shop, using the traditional Hawaiian greeting and word of welcoming.

Now the lawyers, with the firm Olson and Cepuritis, Ltd., were demanding that he change the business’s name, website, logo and materials to cease using the words “Aloha” and “Aloha Poke” immediately...

In a statement posted on social media, the company said that it had two federal trademarks for its logo and the words “Aloha Poke,” for any use connected to restaurants, catering and take out. It took aim at what it said was misinformation being spread about its intent, and said it was only trying to stop “trademark infringers” in the restaurant industry who used the words “aloha” and “poke” in conjunction with one another."