• hiddengoat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    No, Taco Bell won because WHO THE FUCK IS TACO JOHN’S AND WHY THE FUCK DO THEY OWN TACO TUESDAY?

    Did you know that two companies had ownership of that trademark? Does anyone associate “Taco Tuesday” with anything but being alliterative? Do people immediately think of Taco John’s or Gregory’s when they hear “Taco Tuesday?”

    No.

    They probably think of every elementary school that had a Taco Tuesday at least once a month. They probably think of the Lego Movie. They probably think they’re hilarious and just made it up for the first time.

    Even if you knew of Taco John’s and knew they had Taco Tuesday, did you know that it was their trademark?

    Taco John’s did not relinquish the mark because they couldn’t fight it. They relinquished it for the same reason Gregory’s did… they knew their claim to the mark was MINIMAL at best and it would be trivial to show common usage of the term that would render it generic.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I actually do think of Taco John’s when I think of Taco Tuesday because that was their big special thing for decades.

      But I also don’t care if ‘Taco Tuesday’ is something you can trademark. If Taco Bell wants to use it, fine.

        • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Look at all that Midwest. Surely these tacos have to be cursed stains on the name. Especially from John. John ain’t know no tacos.

          • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            I can’t shit talk taco john’s because we have Jim boy’s tacos out here in Norrhern California lol

            They put Parmesan cheese on the shells

        • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          So if I read the article correctly, they owned the trademark to “taco Tuesday” in States they didn’t even have stores in? “Intellectual property” is such a farce

          • hiddengoat@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            No, it’s not a fucking farce you just have minimal knowledge of how this shit works. Which why the fuck would you be lame enough to know it?

            So here’s how it works, because I AM that lame…

            A trademark can apply to any number of limited areas. It can be limited to a geographical region, it can be limited to industry, it can be limited to a specific service, it can be limited to a specific product.

            If I start a restaurant called “McBurgerPlace” in NYC and it turns out there’s already a McBurgerPlace in San Francisco… well it doesn’t matter because the San Francisco McBurgerPlace only has one location. They may have a trademark on the name, but infringement of a mark hinges on the concept of confusion in the marketplace. Will someone reasonably confuse MBPNYC with MBPSF? The answer is no. They’re on opposite sides of the country, in different markets, serving different menus. There’s no infringement because the market for each is limited to their nearby geographic region. Let’s say I’m better at burgers. I start to expand. Soon, I operate 363,824 MBP restaurants worldwide. I am the king of food. Except that I’m not. I can’t break into the Bay Area. Why can’t I? Because that’s MBPSF’s territory. They were there first. They had the trademark prior to my registration. As such, I cannot enter that market with that name. Doing so would threaten their mark and lead to a lawsuit that I would almost certainly lose. It would be much easier to just rename my restaurants in that area BcPlurgerMace and get on with life.

            This exact thing happened to Burger King. https://www.businessmatters925.com/post/burger-king-vs-burger-king-trademark-infringement-case-study

            Look at a local business directory and see how many places are named “Five Star.” Laundry, plumbing, electric, movers, etc. You can have that many “Five Star” businesses because they operate in different market segments. Nobody is going to call Five Star Plumbing thinking they’re actually calling Five Star Movers. There’s no competition. There is no dilution of the mark. There is no infringement.

            Trademark and IP law is fucking stupid unless you’re a goddamn moron and waste considerable amounts of your life reading way too much about it. For money. Because it’s your job.

            Life Pro Tip: Don’t be a paralegal.

            • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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              1 year ago

              No, I understand how it works, nothing in your rambling justification is new to me. This one case is not the only reason why I think “intellectual property” is stupid. Just like with crypto weirdos, people who support “intellectual property” absolutely cannot fathom that someone knows how it works and doesn’t like it.

            • Hydroel@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Your explanation is interesting (and I learned a thing or two), but it fails to explain how such a term as Taco Tuesday could be considered a trademark in locations where the owner of the trademark is implanted.

        • davidgro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oh wow, I had no idea there were two of them in my state, (but other side of it from the major cities) - I definitely first heard of it in relation to the copyright claim.