Joining Taco Bell's current campaign to determine "Taco Tuesday" as ubiquitous is Lebron James. Famous for his incredible skill at basketball, King James also throws some awesome Taco Tuesday parties. Lebron's own attempts to monetize those taco events as "Taco Tuesday" were thwarted by Taco John's already owning the mark everywhere in the US except New Jersey.
It just seems impossible to me that Taco John's has successfully policed their trademark enough to be still getting away with it. There are "Taco Tuesday" signs outside the Irish-themed sports bar on Main Street in my town and the small taco stands. Regardless, it is awesome to see Lebron have fun with this.
Well, well, the "Taco Tuesday" battle appears to be heating up quickly. After years of holding and policing its trademark for "Taco Tuesday," chain Taco John's has found itself in a battle with Taco Bell, which is petitioning the trademark office to rescind its rival's mark due to it becoming generic. I noted in that last battle that NBA mega-star LeBron James, himself apparently a huge fan on social media of celebrating taco Tuesdays, attempted to get a trademark for the phrase for himself. When that was denied, part of the reason the USPTO gave was that the term was too generic to be trademarked. Had LeBron wanted to press the issue, he could have used that as a weapon to push the Trademark Office to rescind Taco John's mark.
But he didn't do that. And now Taco Bell has picked up the battle itself, petitioning the USPTO to remove the trademark. But that's not all Taco Bell is doing. Instead, the company has teamed up with LeBron to take this fight to the public with a commercial that first aired during the Lakers/Nuggets playoff game on May 22nd.