A British-founded Vietnamese restaurant chain has applied to drop a trademark it has owned for almost two decades on the word “pho” in the UK, following outcry on social media.

       The restaurant chain – itself known as Pho – filed a request to surrender its trademark on the word, reported British newspaper The Daily Mail on Oct 22.

       Considered by many to be Vietnam’s national dish, pho is its “most successful culinary export”, according to the country’s official tourism website. A bowl typically contains soft rice noodles and sliced meat drenched in boiling broth, made by simmering beef bones with spices. It is also served with a variety of vegetables and herbs on the side.

       Pho restaurant’s trademark of the name of the dish went viral earlier in October after a TikTok video posted by user Yen Bui on the issue garnered over 2.5 million views.

       “Do you know how insane that is? That is like trademarking the word fish and chips or kebab or sushi,” said an outraged Ms Bui.

       She also claimed that in 2013 the chain “started to sue independent Vietnamese businesses” in the UK that had the word in their names.

       Many commenters on the TikTok platform expressed solidarity with Ms Bui’s sentiment, calling for a boycott of the restaurant chain.

       Founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Stephen and Juliette Wall after they “travelled to Vietnam and fell in love with the food”, Pho now has 45 outlets across Britain under the company Pho Holdings.

       The company first trademarked several variations of phrases that involved the word “pho”, as well as the word itself, the same year it was founded.

       In 2013, a restaurant called Mo Pho Viet Cafe said in a statement on Facebook that it would have to change its name after it was “put on notice” that Pho Holdings trademarked the term “pho”.

       Mo Pho Viet Cafe said that Pho Holdings felt that “the use of our name Mo Pho is confusingly similar to their trade mark, constituting an infringement and passing off”.

       “Our biggest surprise was that trademarking the word Pho was possible, especially as it’s our national dish which is used widely in our trade as a Vietnamese cafe/restaurant,” it said.

       After receiving backlash on social media at the time, Pho Holdings backtracked and said that it would not pursue action against Mo Pho, apologising and saying that it had only wanted to protect its brand and business.

       Following the second round of brickbats online after Ms Bui’s TikTok video, Pho decided to surrender its trademark.

       “We have always loved the Vietnamese food and culture that Pho Holdings has been inspired by and have been listening to the comments from the past week,” said a representative quoted by Daily Mail.

       “We understand the concerns that have been raised and have today filed a request to the Intellectual Property Office to surrender our registered trademark on the use of ‘pho’.”

       The restaurant chain also posted a notice on its Instagram page on Oct 17, claiming that the trademark had been “misunderstood”.

       “Let us categorically say – we would never attempt to trademark this dish. Like so many of you who have shared passionate comments about this, we believe that pho doesn’t belong to anyone but the people of Vietnam,” read the post.

       “It’s true that we hold a registered trademark that relates to our brand identity and logo, but this does not limit any other business to use the word pho in their name.

       “More than 50 other businesses in the UK currently also hold a trademark that relates to the word pho. As for any claims that we are suing Vietnamese businesses, this is simply not true.”