It’s an old fashioned food fight. And whoever wins gets the whole enchilada..That’s because junk food giant Taco Bell is pulling out all the tortillas in a bid to wrest the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’ from its sole owner, a bar owner on the Jersey Shore.. Taco-Bell-LeBron-JamesTaco Bell announces LeBron James is joining its efforts to free the "Taco Tuesday" trademark for all. .Gregory Gregory, who owns — what else? — Gregory’s Bar in Somersault Point, NJ, says he doesn’t particularly care for tacos even though his restaurant is famous for them. On Tuesdays..He coined the phrase in 1979 and was officially granted the New Jersey service trademark from the US Patent Office in 1982. Since then he’s sold more than two million and counting, using a recipe he discovered in an old Playboy magazine..In interviews, he said he uses Taco Tuesday Events to raise money for local charities..Now Taco Bell, which has 7,200 locations, wants to use it in all 50 states and territories, including Jersey, where Gregory is the lone holdout. .In May, it petitioned the US Trademark Office to cancel it in 49 states, where it was held by a Wyoming restaurant called Taco John’s which gained a federal trademark in 1989. .Taco Bell pulled out the big guns, including a TV spot featuring LeBron James, a self-described taco “enthusiast.”.Taco John’s relented in July, to avoid a potentially costly legal battle..But now Taco Bell is coming after Gregory. In its court filing it argues that depriving people of free use of the term is like “depriving the world of sunshine itself.”.“People like tacos on Tuesdays. They just do. It’s even fun to say: ‘Taco Tuesday.‘ Tacos have the unique ability to bring people together and bring joy to their lives on an otherwise mediocre day of the week,” it said..“This Petition is brought because Taco Bell believes that tacos, just like the joy they bring, belong to everyone on any day. Ergo, ‘Taco Tuesday’ should belong to everyone. .In Canada, the phrase is owned by Quebec-based Taco Time Canada. It gained notoriety for demanding a Calgary restaurant, Blanco Cantina, stop using it in 2018, which it did..That said, the origin of the word ‘taco’ is uncertain with no literal translation. .Its first use was recorded in the US between 1930 and 1935 among Mexican immigrants. It’s thought to be a shortening of ‘taco de minero’ or ‘miner’s plug,’ from the resemblance to an explosive charge used in silver mines.
