Can you trademark a 'bean club'? Rancho Gordo's legal claim is dividing the industry - BERITAJA

Steve Sando started his Bean Club arsenic a joke successful 2013.

The thought seemed silly astatine first — who would beryllium willing successful a legume container subscription? Yet it was this conception that would pull thousands of legume lovers respective years later, becoming a nationalist arena for the legume community.

Sando started trading curated selections of heirloom beans astatine farmers’ markets successful Napa, wherever he had successfully sold heirloom beans nether his brand, Rancho Gordo. He yet transitioned to message orders arsenic rank grew.

“Bean Club is truthful unusual, and successful 2013 location really was thing for illustration that,” Sando said. “It’s really a circumstantial point for utmost legume enthusiasts.”

By 2020, Sando’s Bean Club had amassed 11,000 members. Five years later, that number tripled to much than 30,000, pinch a increasing waitlist of much than 36,000 people.

For many, Rancho Gordo beans person go a pantry staple and cooking essential. They’ve brought thousands of group together via Facebook groups wherever nine members stock their favourite recipes and big regular events.

“If I person a legume that’s caller to me, the first point I’ll do is spell connected the Facebook group and hunt it up to spot what different group person made pinch it,” said Jane McClintock, a D.C. resident and Bean Club member.

Amid Rancho Gordo’s emergence successful heirloom legume status, however, caller contention dispersed aft Sando’s determination to trademark Bean Club and prosecute different brands utilizing the phrase. Thus far, he’s sent letters to 2 akin brands threatening ineligible action if they continued describing their memberships arsenic a “bean club.”

Sando, a California native, started increasing beans successful his Napa location about 2001 and steadily built his heirloom legume empire, now supplying 2.5 cardinal pounds of beans annually and moving pinch about 15 farmers successful cardinal California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and respective Mexico co-ops.

The determination to trademark Bean Club came successful 2021, aft he noticed 1 of his customers had started an Heirloom Beans & Grains Club and occasionally referred to it arsenic “bean club” for short.

The customer was Lisa Riznikove, main executive of Foodocracy, a nonprofit she started successful 2020. Riznikove utilized to connection Rancho Gordo’s beans successful quarterly subscription boxes for Slow Food USA. After transitioning into a for-profit, having realized it was a amended conveyance to further her ngo of supporting mini farms, Riznikove launched her Heirloom Beans & Grains Club successful 2021.

“It was ace mini erstwhile we first launched it, and we told Rancho Gordo, and he decided he did not wish to waste to america anymore, because he did not for illustration the truth that we had a club,” Riznikove said.

Sando said his institution recovered instances wherever Riznikove utilized the building “bean club” connected blog posts and emails. He said photos of Rancho Gordo beans were still connected Foodocracy’s website, and that it was confusing customers.

Riznikove said she’s ne'er encountered a confused customer.

“Never had a customer ever inquire maine if we person Rancho Gordo successful the club, aliases if these are Rancho Gordo’s beans,” she said.

Sando applied for a trademark successful 2022 and received it the pursuing year. He said his institution had sent Riznikove 2 letters requesting that she extremity utilizing the phrase, and aft receiving nary response, they sent a cease and desist missive successful June 2025.

Sando said he wanted to protect Rancho Gordo’s unique, direct-to-consumer subscription model.

“We sewage the trademark to protect our mini measurement of doing it, not to norm the world and bully people,” he said.

Riznikove said she was ne'er contacted anterior to receiving the cease and desist letter, and that she wasn’t alert of the trademark. After consulting pinch a trademark lawyer, Riznikove decided it wasn’t worthy fighting and is successful the process of removing the instances wherever she had utilized the phrase.

“It’s conscionable a logical and generic descriptive word for what it is,” Riznikove said. “It’s not, successful my opinion, an ownable thing.”

Riznikove said she knows of galore different mini farms that person legume clubs, and that it is simply a dependable root of income.

“Our broader interest is that overly generic trademarks go a shape of gatekeeping that furthers firm consolidation successful the nutrient industry, and mini farms are ever the ones who salary the value for that,” Riznikove said.

Rancho Gordo besides sent a missive — though not an charismatic cease and desist — to Buttermilk Bean successful June 2025, a farmer-run corporate successful Finger Lakes, N.Y. The institution had been utilizing the building “bean club” to mention to its seasonal legume subscription programs.

Kristen Loria started Buttermilk Bean successful 2021 to support farmers astatine different scales and get their products from the section to the marketplace astatine a adjacent price, successful summation to increasing her ain crops. She started a wintertime “bean club” that aforesaid year.

After receiving the trademark announcement from Rancho Gordo, she changed the sanction to “bean share.”

The announcement came arsenic a daze to Loria, who was amazed personification would trademark the term.

“It was disappointing, because that was what we had been doing for 4 years, and group knew it that way,” she said.

Buttermilk Bean presently has about 600 members for its outpouring and wintertime shares.

“In the end, what we’re doing is much important than what it’s called, but certainly, yeah, it doesn’t consciousness for illustration a word that should beryllium to 1 business,” she said.

Rancho Gordo isn’t the first marque to enforce a trademark related to a celebrated and culturally important food. Chef David Chang came nether akin occurrence successful 2024 aft he trademarked the word “chili crunch” — a celebrated Asian condiment and merchandise sold nether his Momofuku marque — and began sending cease and desist letters to companies utilizing the name. In consequence to the backlash, Chang stopped enforcing the trademark and made a nationalist apology that aforesaid year.

To Sando, the Bean Club trademark is not comparable to Chang’s chili crunch, arsenic Bean Club is thing Sando created “out of nothing.”

“Nothing for illustration this existed,” Sando said. “We did thing amazing, and we’re being punished for it.”

Others wrong the legume organization support Sando’s determination to legally take sides his trademark.

“What he’s doing is precisely the correct point to do, and it’s short of litigation … he’s trying to debar lawsuits,” McClintock said. “He’s trying to debar having to return different nutrient businesses to tribunal to take sides his trademark precisely successful the measurement that the companies that owned escalator and zipper were unsuccessful successful doing.”

A Bean Club subscription container from Rancho Gordo.

(Rancho Gordo)

For McClintock, Sando’s trademark is reminiscent of a individual experience, wherever personification copied a logo she had designed for her mini business.

“In business, location is competition, and title should beryllium fair, but it is competition,” she said. “He’s nether nary responsibility to sacrifice and diminish his ain intelligence spot for the liking of these different businesses.”

Joining Bean Club was a “revolution” for McClintock, arsenic it exposed her to caller varieties and flavors of beans, successful summation to a organization of legume enthusiasts.

“Before Steve Sando founded the Bean Club, location was nary legume club,” she said. “I wish group would attraction much connected the truth that he has done much than immoderate different personification successful this state that I’m alert of, to beforehand assortment successful the readiness of beans.”

Susan Park, an L.A.-based nutrient historian, nonprofit leader and legume lover, opposes the thought that Rancho Gordo has elevated beans.

“Everybody eats beans. That’s the about universal, cleanable food,” Park said.

For others, the Rancho Gordo statement has led to a larger speech about nutrient systems and really 1 marque could go the lens done which group position food, according to Lesley Sykes, who has worked successful caller nutrient and beans for decades and now writes the Eating Patterns newsletter connected Substack.

Sykes antecedently owned Primary Beans successful 2020, earlier trading it to Foodocracy successful 2025.

During her clip successful the legume industry, Sykes, in a caller Substack piece, said she felt the weight of Rancho Gordo’s power successful the operational and user world of beans, dealing pinch comparison and occasionally antagonistic comments about Primary Beans “copying” Rancho Gordo.

“I’m doing each this activity to build this web of farms I genuinely judge in, and telling their story, and taking the consequence by putting each this accusation connected packaging … and past it was benignant of like, ‘What is this for, if ultimately, everyone’s gonna for illustration this different brand?’” she said successful an interview.

Sykes published her article April 12, conscionable 10 days aft the San Francisco Chronicle collapsed the story. Many flooded the comments, agreeing pinch Sykes’ views and adding to the speech about really brands could power nutrient systems. Sykes said that her article served arsenic a telephone to action for others to bespeak connected their user choices and look astatine “what’s hype and what’s real.”

“Rancho Gordo is synonymous pinch heirloom beans,” she said. “I’m conscionable trying to admit this taste arena and obsession pinch a brand.”

Sykes said location should beryllium much consciousness and abstraction for different legume brands.

“In bid to turn and create much opportunities for farms, different brands … we can’t conscionable person 1 personification person their operations and predominate the space,” she said.

Sando said he is unfastened to helping and collaborating pinch different legume brands, arsenic agelong arsenic “they’re not copying america verbatim.”

Though nary different trademark concerns person arisen, Sando is committed to protecting Bean Club and pursuing action erstwhile necessary.

“There are a batch of trademarks of group who were innovators. I didn’t invent heirloom beans [or] moreover observe them, but cipher was doing them commercially for illustration we were, and we really deed a niche,” Sando said. “I emotion that different group want to do stuff, but the measurement we do it is this way, and it’s ours.”