The fact that you state their is ‘no chile named Tabasco’ only goes to strengthen the claim they have upon the name as it can clearly then be argued that they orginated the use of “Tabasco” and “sauce” together.

Felt like i was watching (reading) a deposition.

Nice word! We’ll make it the official Word of the Day.

Obviously this issue it is not only a matter of law and you should know that. Especially, when we are talking about big companies that have the power to adjust the law to its best interest. If a judge takes only the law as it is currently established, probably they would give to the big company the victory and we would waste our time discussing about this issue. But judges have to take other considerations, in particular historical and ethical (or moral, for others) considerations.
In the ‘Tabasco Case’, there are a lot of things to say in the historical and ethical side. As I mentioned previously, the name Tabasco (related to the State of Mexico) has at least 500 years of existence. Bernal Díaz del Castillo mentions the river with that name (Tabasco River) in his monumental work about the arrival of the Spaniards to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. And it is a name originated from the word Taabscoob that was the name of one of the Calachonis (leaders) of the region. Tabasco, obviously is a castiglianization of Taabscoob. We are speaking of the beginning of the XVI century.

Now, the original story of the ‘Tabasco sauce’ (they have changed it recently in their web site, I don’t know if this change was because of the ‘Tabasco Case’ or for other reasons), they mention that some member of the family Mcilny or somebody related to them brought a chile from the southeast of Mexico (the web site says now that from Centro America, and where is Tabasco but in Central America?) and gave it to Mr. M…. (other version says that a soldier coming back from the invasion of Mexico in 1847 for the US Army, brought the chiles). In any case, somebody brought the chiles from Mexico. And, obviously again, has to be a chile from the State of Tabasco. What means that whoever brought it knew the State of Tabasco.
Let me tell you that there is not such a chile named Tabasco. It is scientifically named …
And naturally, the natives of the State of Tabasco Mexico give to this chile another name. And these sauce producers took the name after the State. So, there is prevalence of time for many years. And I’m sorry, you can not compare a name of a region with the name and product itself of a ….pulp. I understand that I can not use the name Xerox or to built my own company of. But a community of people and the name of that community have more historical background that a simple product. As you can see, Tabasco is not a chile, is the name a community of about one million people. A natural human thing is to feel a kind of proudness of the land where we were born. And we can see millions of examples not only in the US but all around the world of people naming their stores, delis, restaurants, etc., to homage their lands. A human feeling. Here is not necessary for me to give examples. You can find them watching from the window or opening the door of your house or walking to the next corner. Extending to an extreme the prohibition of not using the name of Tabasco for a desire of the sauce company would take us to craziness. Would they try to erase the name from this State of Mexico? This would be impossible, don’t you think so? The company should be the first to recognize its craziness.

We have to have these human considerations. Shouldn’t have them the judges?

P.S. And I agree with Richard, McIlhenny doesn´t make but vinegar, salt and some chile.

Richard on 1/8/2007 at 12:49 pm said:

McIlhenny doesn’t make hot sauce. It’s nothing but peppered salt water and vinegar.

good point to bad they had to gow and trademark a pepper name for it kinda lowers the value of the tabasco pepper and apparently makes it a pain for anyone who’s actually from tabasco to use the name of their home state

Bret on 1/8/2007 at 10:06 am said:

chilewilly GO BUCKS

Well said Bret