While there may be some Chipotle customers who are excited to try the company’s new burger concept, dubbed Tasty Made, there’s at least one party that’s not so jazzed: an East Coast burger business called Tasty Burger that claims Chipotle is ripping off its name and logo.
Boston-based Tasty Burger has been around since 2010, and has six locations on the East Coast in Boston, MA; Cambridge, MA; and Washington, DC. Tasty Burger’s CEO David DuBois says in a statement that the company recently learned that Chipotle was planning on using the trademark “Tasty Made” for its new burger restaurants, news that was “punctuated with the release of a logo and mark for their new endeavor that is unmistakably similar to our own in color, shape and design.”
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That similarity has pushed Tasty Burger’s buttons, leaving the company no choice “but to immediately send a Cease & Desist Letter to notify Chipotle of our trademark rights. Chipotle was sent this letter on July 19, 2016.”
Despite that, Tasty Burger says Chipotle has gone ahead with its plan to promote the new restaurants, and has “continued to proliferate business fillings pertaining to this name.”
“This has caused a great deal of confusion among our customers, and consumers in general, because Tasty Burger has no association or affiliation with Chipotle,” the company says. “Here at Tasty Burger, we are confused as well.”
Tasty Burger says it would be reasonable to assume that Chipotle has seen its signage — noting that the two companies even share a landlord in one location — or noticed its name when it filed for the Tasty Made registration.
“All of this leads us to believe that Chipotle has intentionally chosen to proceed with the ‘Tasty Made’ name and mark without regard to the obvious infringement,” DuBois writes.
Tasty Burger says though it started from modest beginnings, it has “big dreams” to share its burgers with “millions more” as it opens future locations. Comparing the whole thing to a showdown between David and Goliath, Tasty Burger says it can’t just sit there and do nothing.
“Given Chipotle’s refusal to cease interfering with our established trademark rights, we have no choice but to aggressively protect our well established mark,” DuBois says.
Chipotle doesn’t see why the two can’t just get along, and will continue to use the name and logo.
“We fully intend to move forward with the name Tasty Made for our burger restaurant and strongly believe that we are on solid footing in doing so,” Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told Consumerist in an emailed statement. “The United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to register a trademark for Tasty Burger because it is merely descriptive and not enforceable. Beyond that, we believe there is sufficient difference between the names and logo marks so as not to cause consumer confusion, and we believe both brands can co-exist.”
Tasty Burger did file a trademark application for the name “Tasty Burger” in 2010, but it’s worth noting that it’s a black and white image with no mention of the color red, and the trademark is simply a banner with the words, “Tasty Burger.”
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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