I see this as a win. It’s absurd that anyone can own the term Taco Tuesday. It’s literally a noun and a day of the week
Do you not remember the youtube drama over someone claiming the word “react”?
That was only 1 word…
I’m really surprised that this is the top post here.
It’s not just a noun and a day of the week. It’s a noun and a day of the week used to formally sell tacos.
This is Taco Bell using its size and wealth to take something from smaller players so that it could make money with it.
And the smallest players have always had absolutely nothing to worry about. Part of trademark law is that you must defend it. That can be just a letter.
Everyone can now use “Taco Tuesday” without risk of being sued. Don’t overthink it.
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Well no, they couldn’t. The article literally says that prior to this only that one bar in New Jersey could use it because they had a statewide trademark on it. Because they dropped it, anyone can now use it including other small bars in Jersey.
What this is doing is ensuring it remains open for use by anyone. Taco Bell, Taco Johns, Taco Suzy, whatever. Before, anyone could register for the trademark if no one else had, and start screwing over other small players.
I see this as an absolute win!
Apple’s lawyers would like a word.
Company names are a bit different
Yes yes, it was just a tongue in cheek jab at Apple. Because you know, fuck Apple
I dislike Apple also.
Ruby Tuesdays
I think the names of restaurants are a bit different
It’s Tuesday.
I know how I’m celebrating.
But not at Taco Hell.
My favorite bar here in town has a letter from Taco John’s framed on the wall explaining why they had to change the name of their weekly taco special.
Because of their prices I’d basically given up on Taco Bell except for the value menu. But now every item that was $1 jumped to $1.5 (and everything else went up with it) so I’m cutting out Taco Bell completely. A few months back one of their limited time offers was $5 but when ordered à la carte was $12.47 – that kinda revealed just how (unreasonably) skewed their profit margins must be.
It used to be $5-10 to feel gross and full, now it’s $15-20 and takes 15 minutes both inside or drive through. I haven’t been back in a couple years because of price and incompetence, there’s better options for cheaper and quicker. Sheetz the gas station has been nailing Amerimexican for years if you’re north east.
My local gas station attached Mexican joint has been cranking out local amazing cuisine for years, I would literally never even consider Taco Bell
Laredos has the best gas station breakfast tacos I have ever had
Taco Bell has stayed the cheapest food place for as long as I’ve known.
It’s like $12 for a crunchwrap meal in my super low CoL town. Wemdy’s still has their $5 buggie bag. I used to love Taco Bell but it now costs more than freaking Chipotle.
$5.69 for a crunchwrap in my relatively high CoL town. $5.99 for a “build your own cravings box” that’s kinda like a biggie bag but maybe slightly less food and the specialty item can be a crunchwrap.
Build your own cravings box is amazing. Where I live you can’t order it in-store, it’s online order exclusive. But I think some locations don’t do it, which is sad.
And the crunchwrap is smaller and virtually empty
I still love the food, but Taco Bell is one of the most expensive fast food places around me.
They never have deals. Everyone else has something like a 2 for $6 and/or they offer good coupons.
I only go when I want to have the specific flavor profile they create. If I want actual Mexican food, they’re my absolute last option
Yeah but that Breakfast Steak Crunchwrap with extra creamy jalapeño sauce…
Greatest fast food breakfast item. And I’ve eaten an embarrassing amount of fast food breakfast.
The McDonald’s app always has pretty good deals. 2 spicy chicken for $3 right now.
The over-reliance on apps and the privacy/security implications that entails is a separate issue for me. I also don’t have the Google Play Store (or the associated underlying services) that all the apps require to function on my phone (CalyxOS). Comcast was decertifying my ancient modem so I finally bought a new one. When I needed to swap the hardware id info over and called their support line all of their workflows now apparently rely on using their app. When I told them it was between them supplying me with a vanilla smartphone or me cancelling my service because I didn’t own any devices that supported their app they were then magically able to just update some fields in their database and my modem was set-up with no mobile phones or apps involved. I’ve had a passion for technology my entire life but its current predatory and user hostile default state just makes me hate it.
No worries mate, that’s pretty hardcore. Guess we gotta make lunch at home or pay up 😂
In Scandinavia it’s Taco Friday. Who has the rights to that? Who needs to get sued? Who should we be mad at?
As far as I know, nobody. They understand the social good. And they celebrate it with tacos promptly when the workday ends at 4 PM.
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Alert the Munch Squad.
Justin did a segment on this not long ago that had me in stitches
I wanna munch!
Squad
Hell yeah, happy to see some other MBMBAM fans on lemmy
Fuck Taco Bell. Taco Bell only won because Taco John’s didn’t have deep enough pockets to defend the trademarked term they legally had.
Look, fuck the gross Yum Brands mega conglomerate, but the idea that someone could own the trademark to “Taco Tuesday” is fucking ridiculous.
Welcome to the US, where the rules are made up and the goalposts are set by the deepest pockets.
What makes it fucking stupid? Is it because it reaches a critical mass of usage, so the people get to take it back? Something else?
As an aside, I have a new product idea: Zoidberg’s Super Bowl of Cereal: I’m Lovin’ It!
Is it because it reaches a critical mass of usage, so the people get to take it back?
It’s not my point but that’s literally how it legally works in the US. That’s why Velcro insists on calling their product “Velcro brand hook and loop fastener”
That’s actually pretty common too. Just off the top of my head: Cleanex, Xerox and Nintendo have all had to do similar things to protect their trademark.
Escalator was once a brand name.
They really started padding it towards the end to get to 50 but the first half or so of this listicle has a lot of good examples, quite a few that I didn’t know
https://www.impactplus.com/blog/50-everyday-words-that-started-as-brands-and-trademarks
TIL about trademark erosion. Also, thanks for a proper response.
Trademark erosion, or genericization, is a special case of antonomasia related to trademarks. It happens when a trademark becomes so common that it starts being used as a common name and the original company has failed to prevent such use.
I guess Nintendo fought it successfully by getting the world to call the thing a “game console” rather than calling it a Nintendo. Hoover failed to defend the verb “Hoover” and lost it.
In this case, it just seems like the win is for Taco Bell and their efforts to gain, use and profit from the term. And that makes it feel a little gross and brutish. They could prove me wrong though.
Sometimes a soulless megacorp is the one in the right.
https://clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606/
It’s a food item and a day of the week.
Yeah, “super bowl” also shouldn’t be trade marked, It’s far too generalized to be reasonable. Zoidberg should be as that is a character in a show and should be claimed by the creators with exception given to people whom have that name in real life referring to their own products.
I’m lovin’ it also shouldn’t be trademarked. It’s literally just an expression of joy.
I don’t get why this has to be a difficult concept. McDonald’s didn’t create anything new. The NFL didn’t fabricate the concept of extraordinary dishware. It is absolutely nonsense that anyone with enough money and influence can just choose a couple pre-existing words out of the English language and claim ownership.
They should have never been granted the trademark based on prioriry. They did not coin or use the term first. They are not fighting because they know they wouldn’t survive a challenge which is why they just bullied small shops who themselves didn’t have the pockets to defend themselves.
I don’t think that’s what happened? Based on this article and another one I read, it seems that now the Taco Tuesday trademark is relinquished meaning anyone can use it. I’m guessing taco bell would rather everyone be able to use it including them rather than it being locked down by someone who’s not them.
Indeed that was the case:
According to The Strange History of Taco Tuesday, the promotional phrase was started in 1982 by a chain called Taco John’s based out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. In fact, Taco John’s placed a registered trademark on the phrase in 1989 to attach it to their brand. They filed a lawsuit against another restaurant chain after seeing that it was used, but the lawsuit resulted in bad press, so they have stopped enforcing their trademark. They still use it as their brand’s signature, and rightfully so!
https://bennystacos.com/taco-tuesday-legendary-tradition/
So Taco John gave up the trademark and now any restaurant can advertise “Taco Tuesday” specials.
Being able to trademark a descriptive phrase is ridiculous. It’s just two real English words that accurately describe an event.
My understanding is Taco John’s used to prevent smaller shops from using it
Do you really want Taco John’s to hold the usage rights to ‘taco Tuesday’?
The film Demolition Man is slowly developing to become prophetic.
Fyi, outside the USA, the film replaced Taco Bell with Pizza Hutt.
Which is still the same company.
No-one is saying it isn’t.
But what this person is saying is that they made two versions of the film, with Pizza Hut edited in post, and it doesn’t look great. Lip syncing is not… good.
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I don’t feel like this is something we should celebrate. Idk
Taco Bell may not be the hero we want, but having a trademark on “Taco Tuesday” is insane and I’m glad they won
what’s bad about it??
I read that article as a large corporation bullied a small company into getting rid of their trademark. I could be wrong
That was themselves bullying even smaller companies from using the most basic and obvious alliterative advertising.
