On Thursday, a withdrawal of opposition was filed by Beyond Meat Inc. in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in their legal proceedings against Del Taco LLC ending the dispute over whether Del Taco should be allowed to register a trademark for “Beyond Taco.”
The opposer was concerned that the applicant’s new trademark application would interfere with and infringe on the trademarks that they currently hold when it filed the lawsuit in November 2019. It’s possible that this withdrawal is a result of an unannounced agreement between the two parties, or a change in Del Taco’s registration attempts.
Vegan and plant-based food company Beyond Meat Inc. filed its notice of opposition in the United States Patent and Trademark Office against Eat Beyond Global Holdings Inc. Beyond Meat is one of the top providers of vegan and vegetarian meats, and owns 10 different trademarks including Beyond Meat and other food products prefaced by the word “beyond.” The earliest marks were registered in April 2012 and the opposer claimed that they have been implementing this mark and subsequent others in interstate commerce since the date they were awarded the first mark.
Beyond Meat claimed that they have also spent considerable amounts of time and money to advertise and promote their Beyond Meat products and have built up a good reputation with their consumers in the process. Since each of the opposers’ trademarks was filed before the date of the applicant’s filing, they argued that they have priority over any of their applications.
Beyond Meat implored the trademark office to deny Eat Beyond Global Holding’s trademark arguing that if the company “is permitted to use and register the BEYOND TACO designation for its services as specified in the opposed application, confusion in trade resulting in damage and injury to Opposer would be caused and would result by reason of the fact that Applicant’s designation is confusingly similar to Opposer’s registered trademarks. Persons familiar with Opposer’s BEYOND MEAT mark and the BEYOND family of marks would be likely to purchase Applicant’s BEYOND TACO services as services offered and provided by Opposer.”
The opposer is represented by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. The Applicant is represented by Dinsmore & Shohl.
