Happy Taco Tuesday!
While munching on some delicious tacos for dinner tonight, I ran across an interesting endeavor by Taco Bell to liberate the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’ for restaurants nationwide.
Recently, Taco Bell successfully resolved its dispute with a New Jersey based restaurant, Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar to abandon its trademark covering the phrase in the state.
Furthermore, Taco John’s, a Wyoming-based restaurant also agreed to release its mark of the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’ that covered the rest of the states in the United States.
It was a bittersweet moment for the local restaurant Gregory’s as the owner stated that the phrase “brought a lot of pride over the past 40 years”.
An expert trademark attorney commented that this decision was unsurprising as the “phrase became ubiquitous in the marketplace and any attempt to enforce the trademark registration would likely have failed in court”.
This made me wonder what other common phrases remain to be trademarked and whether those trademarks have any real value, as terms such as ‘Taco Tuesday’ is such a wide-spread term that was used by countless taco restaurants to promote their businesses, despite the marks.
To read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/business/taco-tuesday-lawsuit-ends/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/taco-bell-wraps-up-taco-tuesday-trademark-fight-with-nj-restaurant-2023-10-24/
Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
I find it incredible that a restaurant was able to get a trademark for the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’. I recall the attempt of LeBron James to acquire the trademark for ‘Taco Tuesday,’ which can be seen here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/style/lebron-taco-tuesday-trademark.html
The article notes that a restaurant in Wyoming also held a trademark for ‘Taco Tuesday’ in Wyoming. However the restaurant, ‘Taco John’s’ has since relinquished it’s claim. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/taco-tuesday-us-trademark-1.7007725
It is interesting that companies were able to acquire trademarks for such a common phrase but I am glad to see that now that Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar has relinquished its claim on ‘Taco Tuesday,’ LeBron James or any other NBA Superstar can use the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’ to their heart’s content.