McDonald will lose the BIG MAC trademark?

                                                                              < www.flickr.com >

McDonald's representative brand 'Big Mac'

McDonald's hamburger Big Mac was developed in 1967 to appeal to large-sized customers and is a popular menu until now. It entered into the Korean market in 1988 and got a great response from consumers at that time. McDonald's registered Big Mac as a trademark in 1996.

                                                    < www.intomark.com > WIPS's trademark search database

Ireland's fast food company 'Super Mac'

Founded in 1978, Ireland's Super Mac is a franchise company with 106 stores in its own country. McDonald's has been claiming that its trademarks 'Big Mac' and 'Super Mac' can be confusing to consumers because of similar names. It was reported that the Super Mac had a very difficult time to enter European market. Then in 2017, Supermac filed a complaint with the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that McDonald's has been hindering its business expansion through trademarks that is not used as the trademarks. McDonald's claims that the name "Big Mac" has been widely used throughout Europe.

      < supermacs.ie >

Judgment by EUIPO

On the 15th of last month, EUIPO issued a trademark cancellation ruling that McDonald's did not use the Big Mac trademark.

After the ruling, Super mac said that they won the battle of David and Goliath, winning the McDonald's with its mighty power and trademark rights, and said it was a ruling for smaller companies.

McDonald's said in a statement that the decision was to ignore the obvious evidence that the Big Mac mark was actually being used in Europe and that it would appeal immediately.

After the ruling, Burger King's Swedish branches ridiculed selling menus with names such as  " like Big Mac", "Big Mac like"..etc.

                                                                             < tmdn.org > Supermac's trademark in Europe

Will McDonald lose the Big Mac trademark?

The trademark that McDonald's lost in this lawsuit is 'BIG MAC' which is all capitalized. In fact, in addition to the capital letter, McDonald's has a number of similar trademarks such as 'Big Mac' and 'Grand Big Mac'. Therefore, it will not be difficult to use the name Big Mac in the future. McDonald has lost in 2009 after eight years of trademark lawsuits with Curry Restaurant McCully in Malaysia. In fact, McDonald's has never lost in trademark lawsuits with other companies. That's why industry officials are also seeing a high likelihood of reversing the ruling in the appellate court. We should wait for the next verdict if McDonald can become the real owner of the trademark right against Super Mac.