hiddengoat
Announce thing, stock price spikes, don't do thing.
Is that not market manipulation?
Because trademarks are about market. There is no reason for a business in California to have a say over what a business in New York is named if neither will be entering the other's market.
It happens sometimes that two businesses will have the same mark in different markets but one outpaces the other in growth. If one starts encroaching on the other it typically comes down to a determination of which one was used first in that area. This is why you have the example I gave. It's also why Burger King is called Hungry Jack's in Australia.
Another issue is one of identification. Is this mark associated with this business? Unless you happen to live in an area where there's a Taco John's did you even know they existed? I had never heard of them because the nearest one to me in is fuckin' Arkansas about 400 miles from here. They're concentrated in the midwest. It's a regional chain. Why should they have any claim to a trademark in Florida? Simple answer is: They shouldn't and don't. The term is too generic and has been used by places that sell tacos for longer than this company has been around. They knew they would lost just on basic facts and no matter how they try to spin it as "BIG COMPANY BAD" the fact is they shouldn't have had the mark in the first place.
This is Taco Bell using its size and wealth to take something from smaller players so that it could make money with it.
This is bullshit. The other companies can claim that they're abandoning their marks due to cost but the truth of the matter is these marks should not have been issued. Neither were the first to use "Taco Tuesday." The phrase "Taco Tuesday" has entered everyday parlance. Unless you live near one of these restaurants you may not even know they run a "Taco Tuesday" and, most important of all, you may not even realize that they have a trademark on the term because it's so generic.
And that's the real issue, and the reason they abandoned the mark. Any IP attorney would have looked at this told them it was a complete waste of money to defend because they never should have been granted the marks in the first place.
It always is.
These shitbags all need to be brought to heel.