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Hola Dave,
I have just been told that we won two awards with our products and that is great news. I am writing because I have a question which I think you can help me with. In all our products we use a hot pepper from the Ecuadorian jungle which we have reproduced and performs wonderfully not just as an ingredient but also in the field. This pepper has different names but we have called it Tena which is the name of the region where we found it. I know nothing about this pepper in terms of species, variety, etc, how can I find that out? And also do you know if there is anyway to register the name and the pepper somewhere so that people will begin to learn about it.
Best regards,
Pedro
Hola Pedro:
Yes, congratulations on your Scovie wins. Regarding the Tena (or is it Teña?) chile, the best thing to do is send me samples of the pods. I will evaluate them and send them to my friends at New Mexico State University for evaluation and heat testing. Then we will know the species and heat level. As far as registering the name, I don’t know the agricultural laws of Ecuador, but there must be a way. I suggest you contact a trademark attorney. Also, if you have distribution in the U.S., you can trademark the name of the chile in conjunction with a sauce. For example, if you had a Tena Hot Sauce (as a name of a sauce), this could be trademarked here. In order to trademark a name or mark in the U.S., it must be actually used in trade. There has only been one chile pepper that I know of that has received a PVP, Plant Variety Patent, in the U.S., and that is ’Red Savina Habanero’. All of this takes a lot of money and may not be worth it to you. If you send me press releases about this pepper, where you found it, how you grow it and process it, I will give you editorial coverage on the website and in the magazine. I am very interested in this sort of information. You can email the press releases and send the pods to me at:
P.O. Box 4980, Albuquerque, NM 87196 or overnight to 3825 Beall Ct. SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105
Good to hear from you…
–Dave
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