McDonalds crushes hopes of "Scottish Jewish" restaurant

Mark Glaser, an Australian of Scottish Jewish descent filed an Australian  trademark application in class 29 (for different food types) for “McKosher” in 2013 in the hopes of setting up a Scottish Jewish restaurant. However, his application was opposed by McDonalds, who owns multiple trademarks containing ‘Mc’ for their food products. Furthermore, the fast food giant  is currently negotiating with religious leaders in Jerusalem over their brand name and one of their proposed names for the rebrand in Jerusalem is “McKosher”.

On 3rd May 2016, the Australian Trademarks Office ruled against the Australian stating that his brand would lead to customer confusion and therefore could not be allowed.

Although other non-food brands have been able to register marks containing the Mc prefix, McDonald’s is very serious about protecting its brand in the fast food marketplace. In fact, over the 70 years the company has been trading, it has been involved in countless lawsuits and trademark battles in order to protect it’s famous brand.  

The best way to protect your company’s reputation, brand value and profits in today’s global marketplace is by registering a trademark and gaining trademark enforcement rights. However, just having the trademark is not enough. Like McDonalds you would also need to police your market for potential infringements and then be prepared to act on them when they do arise.

If a case of infringement does arise, a trademark lawyer may advise you to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the company that has been infringing on your trademark. If however, the company does not respond to this request, you may be advised to take further legal action by filing a trademark infringement lawsuit.

In some cases an agreement can be reached whereby the infringing party agrees to only use the trademark for a specific set of goods, which will then be recorded on their trademark application.

For advice and more information on searching, acquiring, registering and enforcing Trademarks please visit our website, http://www.lipex.com. Our unique database of trademarks for sale or license could save you time and help protect your brand.