We all remember Lebron James’s failed bid to trademark the phrase “Taco Tuesday” in 2019. Well, King James has recently joined forces with Taco Bell in a commercial which is aimed at cancelling the “Taco Tuesday” trademark.
It turns out that, per United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) records, as concerns restaurant services, the legal owner of the registered trademark “Taco Tuesday” is Spicy Seasonings LLC, and that registration dates all the way back to December 19, 1989.
However, Taco Bell is currently on a mission to have the Taco Tuesday trademark cancelled. In May 2023, Taco Bell field a petition to cancel the Taco Tuesday trademark for restaurant services with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Taco Bell claims that the phrase “Taco Tuesday” is now so commonplace that no one entity should be allowed to exclude others from using the phrase. And they are launching a widespread campaign, including commercials starring Lebron James, to garner public support (allegedly).
This Taco Tuesday beef highlights an important issue in the trademark field called genericide.
Genericide is the loss of trademark rights due to the fact that the mark in question has become generic in use. Words like aspirin and escalator were once registered trademarks that had become so common in use that they lost their trademark rights. This highlights the importance of policing your mark even after you have acquired trademark rights, so that others do not improperly infringe on your rights and so that you do not forfeit your rights as well.
While we were all set to see how this beef (pun intended) played out at the TTAB, on July 18, 2023 Spicy Seasonings LLC notified the TTAB that it intended to abandon and was actually abandoning the Taco Tuesday trademark for restaurant services.
It was a quick battle, but it looks like Taco Bell won this beef.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Taco Bell was right, and that Taco Tuesday is now so widely used that everyone should be able to use it? Or do you think that Spicy Seasonings LLC should have fought to protect their trademarks rights? Let us know in the comments!
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