Texas woman says a trademark dispute is hurting her wings business
By Pooja Lodhia
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MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) — A Missouri City woman reached out to ABC13, upset by what she calls bullying from the master planned community where she lives and owns a business.
Tyla Simone Crayton is 22 now, but founded Sienna Wings when she was just 14, cooking and selling food out of her home.
She was featured on Shark Tank at just 16, expanded her wings business into a local market, and started selling her sauce at large grocery stores.
Now, her first restaurant is finally open.
“I’m the social media director, PR,” Crayton said. “I’m also the cook, I’m the CEO, I’m the dishwasher.”
But patrons might have trouble finding her new restaurant, as there is no sign on the building.
“We have thousands of customers that drive by Sienna Parkway every day, and they don’t know we’re here,” she said.
Sienna Wings is located in the master-planned community, Sienna, owned by Johnson Development.
Crayton said the Sienna Property Owners Association is blocking her business from getting a sign out front until she signs what’s called a coexistence agreement.
The unsigned contract ABC13 looked over specifies that Johnson Development would have approval rights over any business changes or expansions, including to other cities, states, or countries.
A spokesperson for Johnson Development said the requirements aren’t about punishing, but about protecting Sienna’s registered trademark.
Crayton said she knows other nearby companies have signed similar agreements to use the word “Sienna,” but she’s worried about her own trademarked company, which she said she wants to keep expanding.
“It’s an overbearing amount of control that we’re just not comfortable with because we’ve already been operating for so long,” Crayton said.
“We do see a trend in which trademarks are expanding,” University of Houston law professor Aman Gebru said.
Gebru is not involved in this case, but he teaches contracts and intellectual property law and has also reviewed the contract.
“Trademark law is really at its core concerned about consumers. Locations tend to be relevant,” he explained. “The provision that attempts to regulate what happens beyond that location and potentially includes any location in the world seems expansive in my mind.”
“There are a lot of things I’d do differently because this situation has soured what was such a beautiful thing for me,” Crayton said.
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