In a ruling by the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest court, McDonald’s won a trademark dispute to have the exclusive rights to the use of ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ in trademark names for foodstuffs and beverages.
The Court delivered its decision in response to in a claim brought by a Singapore company, Future Enterprises, which sought to challenge the rejection by the European Union Intellectual Property Office of its attempt to register ‘maccoffee’ as an EU trademark.
The General Court, however, supported the EUIPO’s decision not to accept the application for registration. The Court accepted that the EU patent office had granted exclusivity to the McDonald’s name and 12 other trademarks with the ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ prefixes, and noted:
“The repute of McDonald’s trademarks makes it possible to prevent the registration, for foods or beverages, of trade marks combining the prefix ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’ with the name of a foodstuff or beverage,”
It added:
“it is highly probable that maccoffee rides on the coat tails of McDonald’s in order to benefit from its power of attraction, its reputation and its prestige, and exploits, without paying any financial compensation, the marketing effort made by McDonald’s in order to create and maintain its image,”
Full details of the decision can be found at T-518/13 Future Enterprises v EUIPO.