Taco Bell Wins Exclusive Rights to 'Taco Tuesday' After Lengthy Trademark Dispute

Taco Bell sealed its right to the exclusive use of the popular "Taco Tuesday" phrase. The restaurant has been fighting many fast food for the trademark, and now the legal battle is finally over after a restaurant in New Jersey gave up the use of the term.

According to Reuters, Taco Bell, which Yum owns! Brands Inc. said on Tuesday that it resolved its conflict with a New Jersey-based restaurant trademarked "Taco Tuesday." This development officially ended the brand's legal and marketing campaign for restaurants to stop using the phrase widely associated with Taco Bell.

Taco Tuesday Trademark Disputes

Taco Bell said that Gregory's Restaurant & Bar, located in Somers Point, New Jersey, agreed to drop its trademark for "Taco Tuesday," this happened after the Yum! Brands subsidiary challenged the validity of its filing at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Gregory's Restaurant & Bar's move to abandon its claim over the "Taco Tuesday" phrase comes after Taco John, a Wyoming-based Mexican restaurant chain, agreed to ditch the same term in July. For its decision to give up the phrase, the co-founder of the N.J. restaurant said the Taco Tuesday term "brought a lot of pride over the past 40 years."

He added, "Relinquishing the trademark registration does not change that, but it does allow others in New Jersey the same opportunity to build their own traditions."

50 States "Freed" Taco Bell

Aside from Taco John and Gregory's, 48 other restaurants have agreed to part ways with the Taco Tuesday term. Taco Bell has long been campaigning for firms to "free" the phrase, and now the mission is accomplished.

"The response we've seen over the last six months since taking action to free 'Taco Tuesday' is the exact reason we felt it was worth freeing it in the first place," Taco Bell's chief marketing officer Taylor Montgomery, chief marketing officer at Taco Bell, told CNN Business.

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