No more Big Macs: court bans McDonald's from using this name for chicken burgers in the EU
Irish Supermac wins over US rival in long-running trade mark dispute
The US fast food chain McDonald's is no longer allowed to use the term ‘Big Mac’ for poultry products in Europe unless it has been used for five consecutive years.
The General Court, based in Luxembourg, has ruled that Supermac's Irish competitor has won a long-running trademark dispute, Reuters reports.
Back in 2017, Supermac filed a lawsuit to cancel McDonald's use of the Big Mac name, which the US company registered in 1996 for meat and poultry products.
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejected Supermac's application for withdrawal and confirmed McDonald's right to use the term for meat and chicken sandwiches.
The Irish company appealed the decision.
Supermac, which opened its first restaurants in Galway in 1978 and is expanding its operations in the UK and Europe, also sells beef and chicken burgers, as well as fried chicken nuggets and sandwiches.
The General Court rejected McDonald's arguments and partially overturned and amended the EUIPO decision.
‘McDonald's loses the EU trade mark Big Mac in relation to poultry products because McDonald's has not confirmed the use of the term for a continuous five-year period in the European Union,’ the ruling said.
Supermac founder Pat McDonough said the decision was ‘a great victory for anyone with the Mc surname’.
‘It means we can expand with Supermac across the EU, so it's a big win for us today,’ he told Newstalk radio.
‘This is a huge wake-up call and owners of well-known brands cannot simply take the position of “obviously the public knows the brand and we use it”,’ said Pinsent Masons IP lawyer Matthew Harris.
‘This case highlights that even globally recognised brands are subject to the same scrutiny and have to prove their use of a trade mark in a particular territory.’
The decision can still be appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest court in Europe.
If you have read this article to the end, we hope that means it was useful for you.
We work to ensure that our journalistic and analytical work is of high quality, and we strive to perform it as competently as possible. This also requires financial independence. Support us for only UAH 196 per month.
Become a Mind subscriber for just USD 5 per month and support the development of independent business journalism!
You can unsubscribe at any time in your LIQPAY account or by sending us an email: [email protected]
