Open Post: Hosted By Taco Bell’s Fight To Free The “Taco Tuesday” Trademark From The Clutches Of Taco John’s
If Americans love two things (I’m going to ignore guns for now lalala), the first would be eating bastardized ethnic foods, and the second would be cutesy alliteration! So it’s been troublesome for some taco peddlers and poor LeBron James that a relatively small taco chain, Taco John’s, has owned the trademark for the expression “Taco Tuesday” for the last 30 years and hasn’t been afraid to rip off cease and desists if someone else uses it. Enter taco and diarrhea mega-chain Taco Bell, which just launched a legal crusade to “liberate” the trademark by filing to have it yoinked out of Taco John’s hands and reverted to a generic term so the people can have it back to proclaim, monetize, and hashtag as they see fit.
USA Today reports that on Tuesday (of course), Taco Bell filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to have Taco John’s 1989 “Taco Tuesday” trademark dissolved in what they think is a valiant effort to #FreeTacoTuesday.
Taco John’s owns the trademark registration in 49 states. Another business called Gregory’s owns it in New Jersey, according to Taco Bell.
“Taco Bell seeks no damages or trademark rights in ‘Taco Tuesday,’” the company said in a statement. “It simply seeks common sense for usage of a common term.”
Taco John’s has 40 days to file a response and the case will move to a discovery period if the two chains don’t reach an agreement.
Taco Bell is asking its fans to show support for its efforts by signing a “Freeing Taco Tuesday petition” at Change.org.
The decision could take up to two years, but Taco Bell obviously has more money than sense and seemed to be feelin’ froggy yesterday. Taco Bell posted this on their Twitter account:
feeling chaotic…taco tuesday.
— Taco Bell (@tacobell) May 16, 2023
And another fellow “chain I’ll only eat at if an interstate sign says there’s no more food for 20 miles,” TGI Friday’s, must’ve needed some attention and seemed to pick their side:
We prefer Fridays but Taco Tuesday is pretty nice too
— TGI Fridays (@TGIFridays) May 16, 2023
But Taco John’s CEO had some petty of his own in response to “big, bad bully” Taco Bell and made sure to toss in some shade using their “live más” slogan.
Taco John CEO Jim Creel thanked Taco Bell for “reminding everyone that Taco Tuesday is best celebrated at Taco John’s.”
“When a big, bad bully threatens to take away the mark our forefathers originated so many decades ago, well, that just rings hollow to us,” Creel said in a statement to Axios. “If ‘living más’ means filling the pockets of Taco Bell’s army of lawyers, we’re not interested.”
And whoever runs Taco John’s Twitter has been on a #TacoTuesday bender ever since:
Did you stop in for #TacoTuesday today!? 🌮🌮
We hear there might be some major #Beef? Just doing what we do best & servin' up specially-priced tacos!!
— tacojohns (@tacojohns) May 17, 2023
#TacoTuesday Well said @mrjosephbonner 🌮🌮 https://t.co/eseSZYsRJC
— tacojohns (@tacojohns) May 16, 2023
I think both of these places should just be relieved they’re still free to call their mushy mystery meat-filled garbage “tacos!”
Pics: Instagram, Taco John’s