Now, anyone can use “Taco Tuesday” in their advertising and promotion.
Taco John’s, which trademarked “Taco Tuesday” in 1989 and has been defending it against legal attack by Taco Bell, which said it sought to “liberate” the term, has decided to abandon the registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Axios writes that “Taco Bell said in May that the trademark has restricted restaurants nationwide from using the popular phrase and the company ‘believes ’Taco Tuesday’ should belong to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos’.”
The story says that “Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel said it would have cost as much as $1 million to defend the trademark,” and so it made economic sense to let it go: “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.”
At the same time, Axios writes, “Taco John’s announced Tuesday that it was ‘challenging our litigious competitors and other taco-loving brands’ to join in supporting the non-profit organization Children of Restaurant Employees (CORE).
“Taco John’s said it is donating $100 per location in its system and giving a $40,000 donation to CORE … Let’s see if our friends at Taco Bell are willing to ‘liberate’ themselves from their army of lawyers by giving back to restaurant families instead,” Creel said. ‘We challenge them to match our $100-per-restaurant pledge – that’s about $720,000 – which is less than they’d have to spend in a legal battle for the mark’.”
KC’s View:
From the beginning of this contretemps, I argued here that if Taco Bell owned the trademark on “Taco Tuesday,” and not Taco John’s, it would be fighting tooth-and-nail to hold onto its trademark rights. “Liberation” wouldn’t mean nearly as much under those circumstances.
I don’t care all that much about Taco Tuesday – I eat tacos any damn day I want, and avoid Taco Bell like the plague because that’s probably what I’d get there – but I do care when bullies punch down. That’s what Taco Bell did here, and it appears to have won. But I’m not impressed on any level.
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