Apparently, Britons are willing to do some crazy dumb shit to push the news cycle past the Queen's funeral-procession, as a London restaurant has issued a legal challenge to one of its local competitors over the use of the word "taquería" in its name.
Eater fills us in on the case of Taquería, a restaurant with two locations in London from a group called Worldwide Taquería that has issued a cease and desist order to an acclaimed northern Mexican restaurant named Sonora Taquería, alleging its use of the word infringes on the restaurant's trademark.
This is hilarious, given the term's common usage to denote a place that specializes in tacos throughout Mexico, the United States, and numerous other realms where tacos enjoy ubiquity. Not to mention the fact that Sonora Taquería is co-owned by a Sonorense chef named Michelle Salazar de la Rocha, who hand makes her own tortillas de harina, while Taquería counts two venture capitalists and British nationals named Trent Alexander Ward and Daniele Benatoff as its owners.
Nonetheless, a 20-page letter was apparently served to Sonora Taquería by the lawyers for Taquería earlier this month, asking for a response to the suggested resolution by the middle of next week that outlines the purported infringement and its many occurrences. As our editor-in-chief might cry, "Oh, the caucacity!"
Salazar de la Rocha and her partner, Sam Napier, tell the site they think they can fight the cease and desist, given the generic term's widespread common usage, while Taquería's knickers are all in a twist as they claim Sonora's potential customers may be linking the two brands in their minds and think that it's food and services are associated.
A better question may be WHY Sonora Taquería, which is frequently cited as one of London's best taco spots, would want to deliberately affiliate itself with Taquería, which rocks three-and-a-half stars on Yelp and serves tacos de camaron with "sweet" pico de gallo and what appears to be crispy carrots on top?
In any case, where is LeBron James when we need him, pivoting in to liberate London's finer taquerías from the kind of bloodsuckers we rightly believe the British collectively refer to as "daft twats?"
