Fire Cider in Hot Sauce
March 25, 2020
There was an awful ruckus in my industry, and unless you are active in the herbalist community, or you read obscure web postings for little-known health tonics, you might not have known what was happening in the world of Fire Cider. In short, makers of Fire Cider were in a trademark dispute, and they had been for years. It is hard to believe that anything as universally understood as a “wellness tonic for all” would evolve into a bitter legal matter, but it did. In the herbalist community, this legal action caused levels of stress and heartache, usually unknown in this quiet corner of commerce.
This trademark lawsuit is the most significant controversy to shake naturally peace-loving makers of herbal products. There are many makers of Fire Cider, of which we are one, and the dispute has caused real hardship. Karen’s Botanicals has remained silent; however, there is a court date set for March 25, 2019, and we feel it is time to express our thoughts on trademarks and small makers of herbal joys.
The fight is over a name, nothing more than the words “Fire Cider,” a term used for decades to denote a sweet, hot, spicy, at times biting tonic, with no two versions being the same. Rosemary Gladstar popularized this concoction of heat and spice in the books she wrote. She called it Fire Cider, we called it Fire Cider, and peace reigned in the Queendom of warm, healthy tonics when everyone was allowed to call it Fire Cider.
There is a gentle ladies’ agreement within the herbalist community, which affirms that each unique version is acceptable and all may use the term “Fire Cider.” A problem never arose, even with all the varied types of Fire Cider. However, several years ago, a company began telling the women who had made Fire Cider for decades that they must now stop, because the company’s founder wanted the name for his version only.
Women such as myself started getting letters asking us to change the names of our products. Some women did change the name of their Fire Cider, but it did not seem to matter, because the new name might still contain the word “Fire.” The changes were made to avoid conflict, but they were not enough to satisfy the company and its lawyers. Many small makers fear the threat of litigation. They are being told to remove Fire Cider from their shelves and rename their product something unrecognizable. How would the term Spicy Swamp Water equate to the name Fire Cider? I don’t think anyone who has used Fire Cider for the last twenty years would buy Swamp Water.
Makers had to recall bottles from retailers and cut their prices, and in desperation, some women have given away their tried-and-true formulas to the public. In short, many small makers have been pressured into harming their businesses and curtailing their livelihoods, all to prevent the generic term “fire cider” from being “owned” by a single company.
There is genuine sadness in what has happened. A small group of Fire Cider makers has been tied up in legal fights for years to prevent the term “Fire Cider” from being taken over by one company. These women have invested significant sums and many years developing their Fire Cider. A company not involved in the herbalist community is saying that it alone is entitled to use the term. To many of us, using trademark law to push other makers out of the market feels deeply unfair.
Additionally, makers of Fire Cider, like me, were told that we could no longer sell our product on wider platforms such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and Walmart. Many small, mostly women-owned businesses were removed from these venues after the company’s complaints. The result has been to limit small makers like me to an even smaller and more fragmented market for our products.
There is ironic humor in this story. Those of us who produce Fire Cider would have joyfully invited the founder to come alongside us as an equal maker. We would have encouraged him to do his own thing and make his version of this spicy-sweet tonic. In other words, we would have welcomed him into the fold. Instead, the company’s response to our sense of community has been to send cease-and-desist letters to herbalists across the country.
The actions of one company have brought Fire Cider makers across America into federal court. These are the same makers who would have encouraged the company to make its own version of Fire Cider. The very women now being driven out of business are the same women who would have shared their formulas with him.
Whatever the reasoning for pushing small makers out of the Fire Cider business, it cannot be worth the chaos, cost, and pain it has caused small-business owners across the country who make their living in the herbalist community. The logic behind all this litigation escapes me. Understandably, it is hard for a company to change its mind after deciding; however, for the sake of all concerned, and however burdensome, it is not impossible to make a better decision, change direction, and end this fuss.