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ʻOkina trademark dispute reopens conversations on intellectual property rights

The ‘okina or glottal stop is one of 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, which is now trademarked by the company ʻOkina Kitchen.
ʻOkina Kitchen
The ‘okina or glottal stop is one of 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, which is now trademarked by the company ʻOkina Kitchen.

‘Okina Kitchen, an organic baking mix company originally based in Kailua, is sparking conversations in the Native Hawaiian community about cultural appropriation and intellectual property.

The ‘okina, or glottal stop, is one of 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, which is now trademarked by the company’s owner.

‘Okina Kitchen's ownership over the trademark for the word ‘okina has raised a lot of questions — especially for Kumu Hula Vicky Holt-Takamine of Hālau Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima.

Vicky Holt-Takamine speaks to the family of hula dancers in preparation for the annual Merrie Monarch festival. (March 31, 2024)
Cassie Ordonio
/
HPR
Kumu Hula Vicky Holt-Takamine is a member of the Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group.

“What is your pilina to our Native Hawaiian community? What makes you feel like you have the right to use and appropriate Native Hawaiian terms to promote your business? Are you using Native materials? Are you giving back to the community?” Holt-Takamine asked.

“When we do something, we have to have a pilina to why we’re doing it. And I don’t see that in this. I don’t see the connection to the Hawaiian community. I don’t see a benefit to the Hawaiian community," she said.

Marketing material for ʻOkina Kitchen has been circulating on social media. It reads: “As a letter in the Hawaiian alphabet, an ‘okina represents a break between two syllables. As our name, ‘okina represents a break from the rush of life.” ʻOkina Kitchen founder Kristen Eldredge did not respond to HPR’s repeated requests for comment.

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and business

‘Okina Kitchen is not the first business to incorporate ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi into their name. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiian Language Professor Noah Haʻalilio Solomon said he welcomes the use of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in business, and that is likely the case for most in the Hawaiian language revitalization movement.

“ʻAʻole au makemake e komo ʻole ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi ma ka pāʻoihana. Makemake nō paha ka hapa nui o mākou ka poʻe e hoʻoikaika nui nei i ka hoʻōla hou ʻana i ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Komo ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi i loko o nā pāʻoihana, akā ʻaʻole he mea koho wale i ka hua ʻōlelo mua i loaʻa iā ʻoe ma kou heluhelu ʻana ma loko o ka Puke Wehewehe. Nui nā kumu ʻike.”

Solomon said ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is used by businesses — but you don’t pick the first word you see in the Hawaiian Dictionary. There are a variety of Hawaiian language resources. He said incorporating ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi into your business also comes with kuleana.

ʻAʻole pau ko lākou kuleana ma ke kapa inoa ʻana me ka inoa Hawaiʻi. He kuleana ko lākou e hoʻoikaika ai no ka pono ʻo ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi no kona ola hou ʻana mai kēia mua aku no kona hoʻokoe ʻia ʻana a ili aku hoʻi ma luna o nā hanauna e hiki mai ana.”

Solomon said using a Native Hawaiian name for a business comes with a responsibility to support ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in a way that allows the language to flourish for generations to come.

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and U.S. intellectual property law

So, what exactly does U.S. intellectual property law say about ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi?

Makalika Naholowaʻa, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, said there is currently no special protection in law for the Native Hawaiian language.

"It’s subject to the same possible privatization and quasi-monopolization through the IP system that the English language and all the other languages are," Naholowaʻa said.

Naholowaʻa said thorough monitoring of the issue and proactive advocacy could be implemented for the Hawaiian language so that it is treated similarly to English.

“For example, there are carve-outs in the IP system that says you cannot monopolize something as a business name if its non-distinctive,” Naholowaʻa said. ”So there’s rules that say if something is sort of generic for a product then you can’t monopolize that name. Could you use it? Yes, you could. But you can’t monopolize it as a trademark.”

However, there are parts of U.S. intellectual property law that are inherently incompatible with Native Hawaiian worldview and beliefs on how the language should be stewarded. Naholowaʻa said part of the outcry in the use of Indigenous names is that communities have had to fight incredibly hard to prevent their languages from going extinct.

“To see the names be used as a marketing shtick by non-Indigenous brands, it does not just rankle into your sense of justice and fairness, but it's also probably confusing,” Naholowaʻa said. “Fundamentally, this area of law around business names and trademarks is about preventing confusion. When I see an Indigenous business name and you think there’s an Indigenous source behind that name. And when it’s not, that’s a deception.”

Naholowaʻa was candid in saying that despite this IP system of laws in place, there’s no organization being funded to bring cases when someone breaks the rules.

“Until somebody cares enough about protecting this language in this way and it gets funded, it doesn’t matter if someone breaks the rules because there’s nobody in a position to take the legal action required to stop them,” Naholowaʻa said.

Paoakalani Declaration

This is not the first business to copyright or trademark Hawaiian language, music or culture.

In 2018, a Chicago-based company attempted to enforce its trademark of the term “Aloha Poke” by sending cease-and-desist letters to businesses with the same name. In 2002, Disney copyrighted Hawaiian songs composed by King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.

“You cannot trademark our ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. You cannot own it. That belongs to all of us as a lāhui,” Holt-Takamine said. “When people trademark it according to the Western system, it prevents others, like Native Hawaiians, from using it for their own use.”

Holt-Takamine has spent decades raising awareness about the challenges Native Hawaiians face when businesses trademark Hawaiian culture, language and music.

In 2003, she and other kumu hula, cultural practitioners, attorneys and UH law school students gathered to draft a document claiming Native Hawaiian intellectual property rights. The Paoakalani Declaration was acknowledged in a resolution by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature a year later, but no action was taken to codify any part of it.

“The state should adopt the Paoakalani Declaration as a policy,” Holt-Takamine said. “My concern is that the state should not own our intellectual property rights, because they then can sell and use it and give permission to other people to use it. We need to maintain our own sovereignty by claiming our own intellectual property rights, as a lāhui.”

Native Hawaiian IP Rights Working Group

Holt-Takamine is one of nine members of a new Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group by House Concurrent Resolution 108 in 2023. The group is headed by Darius Kila, state representative for House District 44 – Māʻili, Nānākuli, Honokai Hale, and Koʻolina.

“Every state protects their identity legally in marketing, right? You look at places like California and their logo with the grizzly bear. Idaho potatoes, Georgia peaches, anything synonymous with their state or culture, they protect it because there’s a fiduciary advantage and benefit to do so,” Kila said.

But he said when it comes to Hawaiʻi and Hawaiian culture and language, protections are lacking.

“In its most diluted basic form, Native Hawaiians don’t view ownership of this practice and culture that they perpetuate. But because now we exist in a Western culture and society where folks have been taken advantage of, things have been taken without permission,” Kila said.

“With no safeguards in place, nobody has been able to almost regulate what is real and what is not. And to some extent, Native Hawaiians haven’t seen the benefit of their culture being used from everyone who are not Native Hawaiian.”

The working group is scheduled to meet for the first time on June 24. Other members of the group include:

  • Kumu Hula Vicky Holt-Takamine, Hālau Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima (Oʻahu)
  • Kumu Hula Cody Pueo Pata, Hālau Hula ʻo Ka Malama Mahilani (Maui)
  • Elena Farden, Native Hawaiian Education Council (Oʻahu)
  • Hailiʻōpua Baker, UH Mānoa Hawaiian Theatre Program Director (Oʻahu)
  • Keʻōpūlani Reelitz, Office of Hawaiian Affairs (Oʻahu)
  • Makalika Naholowaʻa, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (Oʻahu)
  • Naka Nathaniel, Civil Beat (Hawaiʻi Island)
  • Uʻilani Tanigawa-Lum, UH William S. Richardson School of Law (Oʻahu)
  • Zachary Alakaʻi Lum, Native Hawaiian musician (Oʻahu)

Kila hopes the group sets a precedent or a model for Indigenous communities dealing with the same issue.

Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi is an HPR contributor. She was previously a general assignment reporter.
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