Row between London taco restaurants gets spicy over use of ‘taqueria’

theguardian.com:

A bitter row has broken out between two London taco restaurants over the use of the word “taqueria”, with neither side seemingly willing to fold.

Taqueria, which has restaurants in Notting Hill and Exmouth Market, served up a cease and desist order aiming to prevent another Mexican outlet, Sonora Taqueria, from trading under its current name.

In a 20-page letter, lawyers told Sonora’s owners that the use of the word “taqueria” in its branding “constitutes a trademark infringement”, giving a deadline of 21 September for the matter to be resolved, Eater London reported.

However, Sonora, a street food stall based in Hackney, is planning to fight the order, saying it believes that the generic nature of the term “taqueria” does not mean that a “consumer will consider the services that [Sonora is] offering under signs containing taqueria to be provided by, in association with, or under the authorisation of [Taqueria]”.

In fact, its owners Michelle Salazar de la Rocha and Sam Napier told the food industry website that they believe they can fight off the cease and desist charge.

Ismael Munoz, Taqueria’s operations manager, said: “As with all UK trademark registrations, the provisions of the Trademarks Act grant the proprietor the exclusive right to the trademark, and those rights are infringed when the trademark is used in the UK by another undertaking without the proprietor’s consent. As such, Sonora Taqueria Ltd’s use of ‘taqueria’ without Worldwide Taqueria Ltd’s consent constitutes trademark infringement.”

He added: “The trademark ‘taqueria’ has been in use by Taqueria Worldwide Ltd, and its predecessors, for a highly successful restaurant in London since 2005. Through this longstanding use, Worldwide Taqueria Ltd has developed