El Pollo Loco, Inc., a quick-service restaurant chain specializing in grilled chicken, today announced that a Laredo, Texas, jury reached a verdict in a trademark lawsuit filed by El Pollo Loco-Mexico against El Pollo Loco Inc. in 2004.

The chain includes an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Marana at 3781 W. Ina Road and a handful of stores in the Phoenix area.

According to the company press release, on July 26, a jury returned a verdict finding damages of around $22 million for El Pollo Loco-Mexico, based on theories under Mexican law. The final judgment has yet to be rendered in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas.

The contractual rights to use the name El Pollo Loco and certain related trademarks and intellectual property in Mexico were assigned to El Pollo Loco Inc. in 1996, pursuant to an agreement between El Pollo Loco Inc. and a company controlled by Juan Francisco Ochoa, founder of the first El Pollo Loco in Mexico and the United States. In March 2004, El Pollo Loco-Mexico filed a lawsuit alleging that El Pollo Loco Inc. breached its agreement in Mexico by failing to exploit the trademarks and to develop new restaurants there.