Trademark Tuesdays
Taco Bell revealed yesterday that it has begun a legal fight to undo the trademark on the term “Taco Tuesday” — a legal protection that much smaller rival Taco John has owned for more than 3 decades.
The primarily Midwest-based chain has held the trademark since 1989, a fact that clearly doesn't sit right with Taco Bell execs, who have filed petitions via the US Patent and Trademark Office, arguing that Taco Tuesday should belong “to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos”.
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Reportedly coined by a Taco John’s franchisee in the early 1980s as an effort to boost sales on the chain’s slowest day of the week, the company has taken a pretty hard-shell approach to defending the trademark through the years. In response to the challenge, CEO Jim Creel branded Taco Bell a “big bad bully” before announcing that Taco Tuesday prices would be available every day for the next 2 weeks.
It isn’t really a wonder that Taco John’s defends its trademarked coinage so staunchly either, given how the term’s usage has taken off in the US. Indeed, compared to other attempts to commercialize specific days for food-based promotional purposes, “Taco Tuesday” has bested the competition for years, continuously soaring above “Wing Wednesday” and “Meatless Monday” every week in Google searches.
