London taco restaurant faces legal battle over ownership of the term Taqueria

Taqueria claims that Sonora’s use of the term constitutes a trademeark infringement
Sonora opened as a food stall in Hackney in 2021
Handout
Miriam Burrell16 September 2022

A London taco restaurant is claiming it owns the rights to the world ‘taqueria’ and has served legal papers against Hackney’s Sonora Taquería restaurant.

Taqueria, which has two restuarants in Notting Hill and on Exmouth Market, allees that Sonora’s use of the term constitutes a trademark infringement, according to Eater London.

Lawyers on behalf of Taqueria service Sonora with a letter outlining the alleged infringement, and recommendation for a resolution by September 21.

But the owners of Sonora, Michelle Salazar de la Rocha and Sam Napier, told Eater London they are hoping to fight the charge.

“if you copyright something, it has to be non-descriptive and distinctive. And the use of the word ‘taqueria’ is descriptive and non-distinctive,” Mr Napier said.

“For [Taqueria] it’s the name of a company, but for anybody else, it’s descriptive. It’s describing what your company does. And it’s not distinctive, because there can be many taquerias, just as there can be many pizzerias.” Taqueria filed its copyright in 2004, when, Napier says, “I imagine that were very few places in the UK using the word ‘taqueria’. But now there’s lots of them.”

Taqueria is owned by Trent Alexander Ward and Daniele Benatoff, directors in numerous businesses, according to public records.

The first site, on Notting Hill’s Westbourne Grove, opened in 2005; the follow-up on Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell opened in 2021.

Ismael Munoz, Taqueria’s operations manager said: “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 long-standing use Worldwide Taqueria Ltd has developed significant goodwill and reputation in the trademark [...] it will take all steps necessary to maintain the distinctiveness of its trademarks and enforce its rights against infringement by other parties.”

This legal threat comes as Sonora’s street food stall in Netil Market, Hackney, closes. While Salazar and Napier are now actively seeking a permanent home for Sonora.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in