Canadian Trademark Blog

Taco Time takes bite out of Vancouver restaurant

A Vancouver restaurant has received media coverage regarding its alleged trade-mark infringement and its fight against a major fast food chain. Apparently, the restaurant has been using the phrase “Taco Tuesday” for a promotion during the last year. Taco Time Canada Inc. is the registered owner in Canada of the trade-mark TACO TUESDAY and, not surprisingly, instructed its lawyers to send a cease and desist letter to the restaurant owners.

Trade-mark registration confers the exclusive right to the registered owner to use the mark throughout Canada in association with the wares or services claimed in the registration. In this case, Taco Time Canada Inc. registered its mark for use in association with restaurant services – about as clear a case of infringement as you’ll see. Although the media report once again portrays this as a “little guy” versus big corporation story, this is simply another example of a registered trade-mark owner policing use of its mark and its rights – as it must do.

This entry was posted by Karen Monteith on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 10:45 am and is filed under Protection & Enforcement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.