LeBron James’ “Taco Tuesday” Trademark Application Denied By U.S. Patent Office

With LeBron James’ move to Los Angeles, the star basketball player has been dabbling into the Mexican dish, tacos. James seems to have wanted to take it a step further by trademarking “Taco Tuesday” for his own uses. However, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied James’ request to trademark the phrase.

Not only was James denied, but backlash quickly followed. The owner of an Illinois restaurant filed a protest against James’ trademark request saying that his company, Taco Tuesday, Inc., has been in business for the past three years.

“Protestor’s company would be crippled if precluded from using its own business name in Internet marketing channels,” the owner stated in a letter. “The quality of being a person who enjoys eating tacos (and posting to social media about one’s experience in eating tacos deemed delicious) does not give rise to a cognizable claim to trademark ownership.”

Now, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has stated that James cannot trademark it due to it being a “commonplace message.”

The USPTO has refused the TACO TUESDAY trademark application filed by Lebron James’ company LBJ Trademarks, LLC.

The refusal, issued at 6:26 PM today, finds that TACO TUESDAY is a “commonplace message” and therefore fails to function as a trademark.#TacoTuesday

My analysis pic.twitter.com/eKcW2l1CnH

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) September 12, 2019