Does this mean that Maunsel White coined the TABASCO® trademark?
No. Maunsel White died in 1863, a year before his heirs first marketed his sauce; and when they did so, as mentioned above, they used the name “Maunsel White’s Concentrated Essence of Tobasco Pepper.” This product was subsequently referred to and known by the consuming public as “Maunsel White’s.” Therefore, because White’s product was identified by the public using the shorthand designation “Maunsel White’s,” it is doubtful that the White family had any proprietary rights in the word “Tobasco.” In addition, the best information presently available indicates that Maunsel White’s product ceased to be manufactured commercially during the 1870s. Thus, even if White’s heirs claimed rights to “Tobasco,” their failure to use the word beginning in the 1870s would have resulted in what is legally referred to as trademark abandonment.
