Sriracha creator doesn't care that the sauce isn't trademarked

Huy Fong Foods is the most famous brand that makes the Asian hot sauce sriracha, but there are plenty of others out there. And it's not just bottles of the classic red sauce: Head to a grocery store and you'll find everything from sriracha ketchup to sriracha hummus and even sriracha beer.

That's because David Tran, the Viatnamese refugee who created the hot sauce, never trademarked the name of the spicy-sweet sauce. Tran, the owner of Huy Fong Foods, isn't interested in suing other companies for using "sriracha," though.

Steve Stallman, president of food business consulting group Stallman Marketing, told The Los Angeles Times that Tran's not trademarking sriracha was a "major misstep." Lawyers approach Tran, offering to represent him in lawsuits against companies selling sriracha, he told the Times, but he tells the lawyers to "let them do it."

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In fact, Tran apparently has a "daily ritual" of searching the internet for the latest sriracha products, the Times reports. They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — or maybe Tran isn't concerned, since Huy Fong's sriracha bottles have grown from raking in $60 million to $80 million in the last two years.