Khairul Aming Takes Legal Action Against Copycat Sambal Nyet Seller

Khairul Aming is an extremely popular internet celebrity chef and his product Sambal Nyet has raked in a cool RM33.5 million, selling 2.4 million bottles a year as of September 2023. This is impressive considering his business only kicked off in January 2021.

Naturally, viral products spawn copycats but Khairul isn’t laying low, taking swift legal action against a seller who has attempted to rip off his famous sambal.

Khairul spoke about the issue in a video posted to his social media pages. His caption read, “We have identified the seller, and our lawyer has submitted a letter of demand for Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights and Passing Off.”

“There are eight demands that we have listed and if they fail to fulfil all of these demands, we will take this case to the next level. Sambal Nyet was registered as a trademark with MyIPO which was approved on 2 November 2021. I always support small business owners but trade ethically and decently. Do not deceive the public like this,” the post continued.

Case in point, he helped to make cendol seller viral and landed him up to 5,000 customers a day when he highlighted the stall in Taman Melawati to his millions of followers on his social media pages.

In the video, Khairul elaborated on the issue saying that many customers had been duped into purchasing ‘Sambal Nyet Khairi’, the fake version of his successful product. He said that he had prior knowledge of the existence of the counterfeit product but took time to collect evidence for legal action.

He even bought the ‘Sambal Nyet Khairi’ with his own money as evidence and to trace the seller.

Displaying the two bottles side by side in the video, he explained how the bottle labels were extremely similar on the front part of the packaging, both bright red with fire symbols.

The explanation on the side and ingredients was also similar. Astoundingly, the thank you postcard was also almost identical, attempting to mimic Khairul’s photo in a suit. The customer service details were also a blatant rip-off.

Khairul even explained about copyrights and patents and spoke of an incident back in 2021 when someone in Shah Alam also created a counterfeit Sambal Nyet product. He encouraged others with sambal or food products to sell them but with their own identity and brand. He also advised other small businesses who were able to do so to register their trademarks at MyIPO.

We have identified the seller and our lawyer has submitted a letter of demand for Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights and Passing Off. Ada lapan tuntutan yang kita telah senaraikan dan jika mereka gagal penuhi kesemua tuntutan tersebut kita akan bawa kes ini ke peringkat… pic.twitter.com/yNyONxBog0

— Khairulaming (@khairulaming) December 28, 2023

Image credit: @khairulaming