What is the buzz about Taco Bell vs Taco Bill?

Infringement:

Infringement refers to the violation of rules and regulations that could result in penalties.

Nature of the Infringement:

In Australia, infringing conduct will differ subject to the type of Intellectual property (IP) right concerned, protected by its own legislation. It is the legislation which defines the steps that would be taken against the person engaged in the infringement.

There could be instances where the complaints can be made related to the IP matters that are not defined in the legislation. An example of such a case is the breach of a confidentiality agreement. If Party A and Party B are into an agreement and if Party A intends to breach a confidentiality deal, then Party B can take action to restrict Party A from revealing or inappropriately using the information.

Types of IP Protection:

Intellectual property (IP) rights give the owner of the IP with time as well as opportunity to commercialize their designs. Below are the types of IP protection:

In this article, we would look at the case of one of the most popular fast-food chain businesses, Taco Bell which is being dragged to the Federal court by Taco Bill, a Mexican restaurant which is serving Australian citizens for more than 50 years. First, we would know about Taco bell and then look into the case.

Taco Bell’s Journey at a Glance:

• Taco Bell is an American chain of restaurants into fast food business providing various Mexican food items like tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and nachos. Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell, who started a hot dog stand known as Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in the year 1962, situated in Downey California.
• In 1970, Taco Bell went public with a total of three hundred and twenty-five restaurants
• In 1978. The company was purchased by PepsiCo, where Glen sold 868 Taco Bell restaurants, and he became PepsiCo’s shareholder.
• In 1991, Taco Bell began its 1st Taco Bell Express in San Francisco which operated mainly in convenience stores, shopping malls, airports etc.
• In 1995, it began co-branding with KFC, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's.
• In late 1997, PepsiCo spun out Taco Bell along with its other franchises into Tricon (Tricon Global Restaurants). Tricon altered its name to Yum! Brands in 2002.
• In 2014, Taco Bell started trialing with fast-casual as well as urban concepts when it created U.S. Taco Co. and Urban Taproom.
• During September 2015, U.S. Taco Co closed as it wanted to concentrate on its new similar Taco Bell Cantina concept.
• In August 2016, Taco Bell announced that it would start testing Cheetos Burritos at select Taco Bell restaurants and in September 2019, it launched Airheads Freeze. In the same month, i.e. September 2016, it introduced Cheddar Habanero Quesarito.
• In July 2017, the company entered into a partnership with Lyft, under which the travelers in Orange country would be able to ask for "Taco Mode" while travelling to their destination from 9 PM to 2 AM which got stopped after a negative response from drivers.
• Taco Bell by 2018 had its presence in 20 nations, and it announced National Taco Day on 21 September 2018, celebrating its global reach outside the US.

Taco Bell in Australia:

Taco Bell in Australia started in 1981 but was asked to alter its name when a local restaurant owner sued it for deceptive conduct.

Later in 1997, Taco Bell was opened in Australia and its store was there in George Street, Sydney and few KFC stores in later 1998 in the new South Wales. It was removed from Australia in 2005; however, it came back to the Australian market in 2017, with the first store in Brisbane suburb of Annerley in Queensland.

In 2018, Collins Food entered into a development contract with Yum! Brands under which Yum! Brands would be starting above fifty Taco Bell restaurants throughout the country within the time frame of January 2019 to December 2021.

Taco Bell dragged to Court by Taco Bill:

Taco Bell, throughout its business journey, has seen a lot of ups and downs. This time, Taco Bell was taken to Court by Taco Bill, which stated that its consumers might get puzzled by the similar name. As announced by Collins Foods Limited (ASX: CKF) on 4 November 2019, it was served with Federal Court proceedings by Taco Bill Mexican Restaurants (Australia) Pty Ltd which would be strongly contested by CKF with strong support from the brand Taco Bell.