St. Cloud Taco Showdown: Local Joint Loses Name Game in Copyright Suit

(KNSI) — A locally owned fast-casual Mexican restaurant in St. Cloud must change its name after being sued for copyright infringement.

In April of 2022, Taco Chon was hit with a lawsuit from Taco John’s, which alleged that the owners of Taco Chon were cashing in on their name as it was too similar to theirs, and customers would be confused.

Juan Ramos Gutierrez owns the restaurant, which now has to be known as Don Chon, and told KNSI News he never gave Taco John’s a second thought when he opened his first location in Burnsville. “To be honest, I’ve never been there. I saw the names because I drive by there, but I never thought it was going to be related because we are Taco Chon, not Taco John’s, you know? I’ve never been there. I don’t know their menu.”

The name Taco Chon was also important to him as it was the name of the taco shop his parents had in Mexico. “I moved here [to the U.S.], and I had a dream. I had a dream about opening a taco store in the United States. Especially Minnesota. I’ve been living here for about 23 years. We decided to open a taco place and we named it Taco Chon because [of] the memories back in time in Mexico.”

He says he has gotten a lot of community support and wanted to thank the customers for backing him up.

According to the Don Chon Facebook page, Gutierrez is working on new menu items and options and is “changing to be better in every way.”

Don Chon is located at 2956 West Division Street.

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