Local food truck in battle over name 'The Pink Taco'

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's a battle over a cease and desist lawsuit between the Hard Rock Cafe and a local food truck.

The food truck was supposed to be used for the co-owner's wives to sell cupcakes, but when that didn't pan out, the husbands had a big pink truck on their hands. So they decided to sell food out of it. Now, nine months later, they have legal issues and it's all over the name that they chose -- The Pink Taco.

The last few months have been busy for the two food truck owners, often parking their pink truck at different spots in the Houston area to serve, well, the name Pink Taco says it all.

Both owners say they came up with the name of their business based on the color of their food. But according to a letter from Peter Morton, owner of the famous Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chains, the duo ripped the Pink Taco name from their Pink Taco restaurants in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

"We're calling it by what we actually serve," said John Hindman

The Hard Rock owner contacted them in February so they changed the name a bit.

"We went from Pink Taco to the Pink Taco Truck, which is more definite. Apparently they weren't happy with that," said Greg Hernandez

So they were served with more legal documents saying in part, "if you do not cease the use of trademarks within five days, the corporation would take the food truck owners to court and go after their profits."

"We are in the red. We had no profits, first of all. So there's really not much they can take as far as business profits," said Hernandez

We asked our KTRK legal analyst about the case.

"The point of the whole thing is they don't want the people in Houston thinking The Pink Taco Truck is part of the enterprise in Nevada," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

He suggests changing the name, but these truck owners are hoping to come to an agreement.

"Let's come to a resolve where both of us can do business and be successful," Hernandez said.

The truck's co-owners tell us they researched the name of their business before they used and they believed it was no longer trademarked.

We made calls to both the Hard Rock's owner and those involved in the complaint, but have not heard back.

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local, samica knight

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