Taco Bell Is At War With Competitors Over 'Taco Tuesday' Trademark

Taco Bell is battling to do away with the trademark for the term "Taco Tuesday" which happens to be owned by a pair of competitors.

Taco Bell reportedly asked the United States Trademark Office to toss out a pair of "Taco Tuesday" trademarks. One is owned by Gregory's Restaurant & Bar in New Jersey, while the other is owned by Taco John's, a Wyoming-based Mexican food chain.

On the Taco Bell side, they're saying that they're trying "liberate the phrase for restaurants nationwide."

So what makes Taco Bell so hellbent on freeing Taco Tuesdays from the clutches of Gregory's Restaurant & Bar and Taco John's (which is great by the way; try the potato Olés)?

Well, aside from the obvious: that they probably want to use it.

"Nobody should have exclusive rights in a common phrase," their petitions said, per Reuters. "Can you imagine if we weren’t allowed to say 'what's up' or 'brunch'? Chaos."

It really would. I mean think hh it sucks when everyone has to say "The Big Game" instead of Super Bowl. Imagine if you had to call brunch something stupid like "almost lunch" or "beyond breakfast" Although we could go ahead and call brunch what it really is: a "Food All-Star Game."

LeBron Tried And Failed To Trademark Taco Tuesday In 2019

The phrase "Taco Tuesday" is so ubiquitous, I didn't realize you could trademark it. I mean, almost every restaurant that has tacos on the menu will run some kind of special on Tuesdays. There was even that weird couple of months several years back where LeBron would yell "Taco Tuesday!" in videos and then post them on Twitter

Even better, he tried to trademark it too, but it was denied because the term was deemed to be s "commonplace term."

While Lebron couldn't get a trademark to stick, Gregory's Restaurant & Bar and Taco John's did.

Gregory Gregory, the co-owner of Gregory's Restaurant & Bar (that's not a joke) told Reuters his restaurant trademarked Taco Tuesday in 1979. Gregor said it has helped them sell copious amounts of tacos in the decade since.

Meanwhile, Taco John's has had their trademark since 1989.

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