Above the Law
‘Taco Tuesday’ Trademark Terminated Thanks To Taco Bell
It felt like a regular, taco-less Tuesday. We woke up yesterday in a world where Taco John’s (and, in New Jersey, a place called Gregory’s) claimed dominion over the phrase “Taco Tuesday” and Taco John’s did not shy away from hurling legal threats at anyone who hoped to embark on the alliterative culinary adventure. But then Taco Bell filed a pair of petitions with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board — and brought LeBron into it somehow — seeking to, as they put it, liberate the trademark for the world.
And, yesterday, Taco John’s agreed to abandon the mark and create a true Taco Tuesday for the ages.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the home of Taco Tuesday, but paying millions of dollars to lawyers to defend our mark just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do,” Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel said in a statement.
I wouldn’t buy this “woe is us” routine from a dollar menu. Taco John’s gleefully paid law firms to fire off bullying letters to local businesses around the country. In 2010, it threatened to sue Iguana Grill in Oklahoma City for attaching the phrase to its $1 taco promotion and… Taco John’s doesn’t even operate in Oklahoma. Those mom-and-pop establishments also relented rather than pay lawyers, so this isn’t a novel concept for the corporate chain.
Read more
https://abovethelaw.com/2023/07/taco-tuesday-trademark-terminated-thanks-to-taco-bell/
