A Weird Fight Over Phrase 'Taco Tuesday' Is Over

It was one of the more unusual trademark fights on the books, revolving around the phrase "Taco Tuesday." The chain Taco John's had it trademarked for decades, and the much larger chain Taco Bell filed a formal challenge to the trademark earlier this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. Now Taco John's, which operates in 20 states, is throwing in the towel, deciding a legal fight would be too expensive. "It's just not worth the amount of money it would take to defend it," says chief executive Jim Creel. "We'd rather take that money and put it toward a good cause."

Creel says his company would donate about $100 for each of its restaurants, the equivalent of about $40,000, to the nonprofit group Children of Restaurant Employees, which helps out families of industry workers, according to a post at Nation's Restaurant News. He challenged Taco Bell to do the same, and there's been no response so far, per CNN. The upshot of all this is you can now expect Taco Bell to be running lots more Taco Tuesday promotions—though perhaps not in New Jersey. It seems that Gregory's Restaurant & Bar owns the trademark to the phrase in that state, though Taco Bell says it plans to challenge that one as well. (More Taco Bell stories.)