Heather Antoine

Taco Bell is on the short list as one of my guilty (or not-so-guilty) pleasures. So, when the popular restaurant chain filed a cancellation action against the TACO TUESDAY trademark, I knew I had to write a piece about it. On May 16, 2023, Taco Bell filed a Petition for Cancellation of the trademark for TACO TUESDAY, which was registered by Spicy Seasonings, LLC in 1989 for “restaurant services. Spicy Seasonings operates the Taco John’s restaurant franchise. As you can see on their website, they claim to have coined the phrase.

The lack of regulations here has led to the absolute worst-case scenario. People with disabilities have not been served since most companies are unaware this is an issue. Most don’t even realize this is something they have to consider until they receive a demand letter. That has certainly been the case for some of my clients. This leads to a scramble to get compliant. Unfortunately, it can take up to a year to do so depending on the complexity of the site. Meanwhile, plaintiffs’ attorneys across the country are taking advantage of the confusion. More than 260 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2016, and significantly more were filed by the end of 2017. But these numbers do not even begin to cover the cases that are settled pre-litigation.