It's Official: The Taco Tuesday Lawsuit Is Finally Over

The moral of this story, in an optimistic light, is that "Taco Tuesday" belongs to everyone. But that wasn't always the case: Before Tuesday, July 18, the phrase "Taco Tuesday" belonged to the regional taco chain Taco John's. In a statement issued by CEO Jim Creel, the chain announced it was relinquishing its trademark of the phrase. The change of heart was prompted by the threat of a lawsuit with Taco Bell, which had filed a challenge to Taco John's ownership of the trademark in May 2023. "We've always prided ourselves on being the home of Taco Tuesday," said Creel, "but paying millions of dollars to lawyers to defend our mark just doesn't feel like the right thing to do." 

Instead, Taco John's is donating $40,000 to CORE, a non-profit that provides financial relief to restaurant workers with children when the employee, spouse, or child faces a life-altering health crisis, injury, death, or natural disaster. For a few weeks between May and July, it looked as though Taco John's was ready to fight back; in a statement issued on May 16, 2023, Creel called Taco Bell "A big, bad bully." 

This pivot to stepping back is a smart PR move; fighting the much bigger chain for the trademark of a now-common phrase would have brought big bills and bad publicity, especially considering that Taco John's lost control of "Taco Tuesday" long ago.

In 1989, Taco John's successfully filed for a trademark of the phrase "Taco Tuesday" in every U.S. state but New Jersey. For a long time, Taco John's likely saw value in marketing and brand recognition for its trademark. The phrase slowly gained popularity in the '90s. In 2000, while restaurants were beginning to publish menus online, more and more instances of trademark infringement — many on public school cafeteria calendars — started to surface. After 2009, the usage skyrocketed. Today, over 700 books, from children's books to cookbooks, are available on Amazon, touting the phrase "Taco Tuesday," a Google search comes back with more than 12.2 million hits for it without ever mentioning Taco John's.

Before the announcement that Taco John's was releasing the trademark, any restaurant, publication, blogger, or social media creator outside the state of New Jersey using the phrase could have been at risk of a lawsuit with the taco chain (or at least a Taco Tuesday cease and desist letter threatening one). But as the internet made the phrase probably one of the most popular ways to describe the early weekday, Taco John's grasp on it was lost. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben told CNN that, at this point, the phrase is so common that "Any attempt to enforce the trademark registration would likely have failed in court." Though technically a win for Taco Bell, it's a win for all taco lovers, any day.