What we can learn from LeBron James Trademarking "Taco Tuesday"

LeBron James trademark for "Taco Tuesday" has been initially denied for failure to function as a Trademark because it was a commonplace message. (other reasons were cited within the office action) 

Now we all saw this coming Taco Tuesday is something that many people say and use ; even though LeBron’s use of it on social media with his family was extremely enjoyable to watch. 

Now LBJ claims that the trademark was filed to establish that he could not be sued for use of the phrase. I commend LBJ because that is a quite an interesting legal strategy.  LBJ got the USPTO to hold that the phrase Taco Tuesday is a common place term. This is even more interesting because there is currently over 5  LIVE Trademarks for Taco Tuesday.  Now since the USPTO has established Taco Tuesday is common place, those with a Taco Tuesday Trademark may find their trademark weakened, and now they can’t send those pesky cease and desist letters telling LBJ to stop. 

So although the UPSTO has initially rejected this application  LBJ and his team have six month to respond to this initial rejection. I am interested to see if they choose to move forward with responding to this office action. For now LBJ and the rest of us can enjoy using, saying , and singing TACO TUESDAY!