Taco Bell Is Trying To Bully A Small Taco Place In Wyoming For The Term "Taco Tuesday"

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AP News- CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Declaring a mission to liberate “Taco Tuesday” for all, Taco Bell is asking U.S. regulators to force Wyoming-based Taco John’s to abandon its longstanding claim to the trademark.

Too many businesses and others refer to “Taco Tuesday” for Taco John’s to be able to have exclusive rights to the phrase, Taco Bell asserts in a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing that is, of course, dated Tuesday.

It’s the latest development in a long-running beef over “Taco Tuesday” that even included NBA star LeBron James making an unsuccessful attempt to claim the trademark in 2019.

“Taco Bell believes ‘Taco Tuesday’ is critical to everyone’s Tuesday. To deprive anyone of saying ‘Taco Tuesday’ — be it Taco Bell or anyone who provides tacos to the world — is like depriving the world of sunshine itself,” the Taco Bell filing reads.

A key question is whether “Taco Tuesday” over the years has succumbed to “genericide,” New York trademark law attorney Emily Poler said. That’s the term for when a word or phrase become so widely used for similar products — or in this case, sales promotions — they’re no longer associated with the trademark holder.

Here's a fun one. Someone actually owns the term "Taco Tuesday" and it's a small Taco place in Cheyenne, Wyoming? Never would have guessed that the little guy could hold such power in the taco market but here we are. Taco Bell is trying to squeeze out Taco John's on their trademark of "Taco Tuesday" claiming it's too broad of a term for one place to have a trademark on. 

I sneaky love everything about this. I love that Taco John's just refuses to budge of this trademark, knowing it's the only thing that is keeping them relevant. I love that Taco Bell is trying to lean on them as the big bad corporate monopoly, knowing they can. And I love that Lebron is such a loser he thought he could get the trademark. 

My take is this. On one hand, if someone is smart enough to lock in a trademark before anyone else they should be rewarded with getting the benefits. Perfect example here, is Taco Tuesday. Taco John's has ever right to try and hold onto this as long as possible. On the other hand, certain things get so big that after a while who really cares who invented it if everyone says it? That's Taco Bell's point here, they are clearly the biggest boy on the block, and everyone under the sun uses the term. 

After a while, Taco John's has to know they can't sue everyone who uses Taco Tuesday right? Also there's no way on earth they can possibly know about everyone who puts "Taco Tuesday" on their menu. I side with Taco Bell here. Everyone has been using it, Taco John's needs to give up it's strangle hold. They should get some sort of payout, but after that it's free game. 

Also ... final reminder. Lebron is the worst.