A family-run Christchurch food truck is facing legal action from KFC if they don\u2019t immediately change their branding, reports Alex Casey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Summer read \u2013 originally published June 27 2025. <\/p>\n
It was a classic blue dome Christchurch day on Riccarton Road \u2013 sunny, cloudless skies, but a distinct chill in the air. Ben Yang had just started his shift at his family-run fried chicken food truck YFC when he received what he describes as \u201cthe shock of my life\u201d. Between drizzling crunchy wings with chilli oil and sprinkling fries with secret seasoning, he was approached by someone from NZ Post with a parcel containing a folder of legal documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe act for Kentucky Fried Chicken International Holdings LLC,\u201d the front page of the dossier read. \u201cWhile our client can appreciate the place that parody and satire have in social media marketing, our client is concerned that your actions will cause damage and dilution to its well-known brand.\u201d Yang could not believe what he was reading. \u201cWhen I saw it, I wondered if it was a dream or something,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I never expected this to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yang\u2019s Fried Chicken, or YFC, is run by 17- year-old Yang and his mother Kathy. \u201cFried chicken was a big part of my upbringing, my father was Korean so I grew up with it and I always really loved it,\u201d says Yang. The Burnside High student returned to his father\u2019s hometown last year and immersed himself in the culture, coming back with his recipes \u201cperfected\u201d. At the end of 2024 his mum was out of work and his own fledgling burger business had fallen over, so Yang decided to open a fried chicken place of his own. \u201cAnd I had the perfect name \u2013 YFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
YFC\u2019s signature Korean sweet chilli chicken. (Image: via DoorDash)<\/p>\n
It took about half an hour for Yang to watch a YouTube tutorial and create the YFC logo, which features his own beaming face in posterised style on a deep red background, next to \u201cYFC\u201d in white writing. They opened YFC in a sublease in Papanui, before moving to the food truck site on Riccarton Road earlier this year. Still in year 13, Yang says the balance has been a struggle. \u201cWhen I get off of school, I come here, and I work. I go home about 11 or 12 every night, and it leads me to studying until around three or four AM and not getting any sleep most days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
You wouldn\u2019t know any of this from Yang\u2019s captivating and energetic social media videos for YFC. His impressive number of promotional reels includes skits<\/a>, dances<\/a> and special effects<\/a>, all made by a fellow Burnside student who Yang pays to shoot and edit. Other videos feel like they could be lifted straight from the Nathan Fielder playbook<\/a>. \u201cAre you looking for the most crispy and most juicy chicken in town?\u201d he bellows from outside KFC, a cartoon exclamation mark blazing red and yellow. \u201cWell, you won\u2019t find it here, but you will find it at YFC.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It is this particular video<\/a> along with the likeness of YFC\u2019s name and logo, that has led to legal action from the global chicken empire. Along with the demand to \u201cundertake an immediate rebrand and cease all use of YFC\u201d, the letter also alleges a breach in advertising standards. \u201cYour use of our client\u2019s KFC trademarks in this video is not in accordance with honest practices, takes unfair advantage of and is detrimental to the repute of the KFC trade marks,\u201d it reads. \u201cAdvertisements must be truthful, balanced and not misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang says he was in disbelief when he received the letter. \u201cI was really shocked that KFC would actually take this kind of action and waste all their time and money when they are literally the biggest chicken brand in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cIt does feel a bit like the big bullying the small.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s an aggressive approach from KFC but an effective one, intellectual property lawyer Narly Kalupahana tells The Spinoff. \u201cThe problem with trademarks is that if you don\u2019t enforce them, then it can come back and bite you down the track,\u201d he explains. For example, \u201croller blades\u201d was a trademark that started being used generically for inline skates and eventually became so commonplace that its registered rights lapsed in some countries. Closer to home, Popeyes Fish n Chips in Manawatu was forced to rebrand<\/a> last year after threats from the US fast food giant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s your classic David and Goliath,\u201d Kalupahana continues. \u201cIf I was him, I\u2019d be probably rebranding \u2013 it\u2019s not a fight he wants to get into and it could be a fairly costly one, because my money would most likely be on KFC getting a judge to rule in their favour on this one.\u201d That said, he suggests KFC could have gone for a softer business-to-business approach in the first instance rather than legal action. \u201cSending the big old lawyer\u2019s letter almost guarantees that the target company gets to ride a bit of a wave of publicity,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Restaurant Brands NZ has been approached for comment, but is yet to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yang has no plans to battle KFC, and has already started the rebranding process. \u201cWe\u2019re a really tiny business. We don\u2019t have much funds or anything to go and fight the biggest chicken brand in the world.\u201d Still, the ever-entrepreneurial student is making the best out of a bad situation, rendering the whole experience into a multi-episode true crime thriller<\/a> (\u201cthis is how we went from frying chicken to frying in legal hell\u201d). He\u2019s also offering a lifetime supply of free chicken to whichever customer comes up with the new logo and branding.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever happens, I know we will survive,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause sometimes it\u2019s not just about the brand \u2013 it\u2019s about the chicken. And our chicken is really nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nBen Yang, social media superstar. (Images: via TikTok)<\/p>\n
Ben Yang at the food truck (logo redacted). (Image: Alex Casey)<\/p>\n