IRISH FAST FOOD chain Supermac’s has won a landmark case against international giant McDonald’s to have the use of its Big Mac trademark cancelled in Europe.
In its judgement, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) said that McDonald’s had not proven genuine use of its Bic Mac trademark as a burger or as a restaurant.
Supermac’s had taken the case against McDonald’s after it was blocked from registering its name as a trademark in European countries outside of Ireland after an objection by McDonald’s.
The decision by EUIPO now “opens the door” for Supermac’s to be able to apply to use its name as trademark across Europe, according to managing director Pat McDonagh.
“We knew when we took on this battle that it was a David versus Goliath scenario but just because McDonald’s has deep pockets and we are relatively small in context doesn’t mean we weren’t going to fight our corner,” he said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, McDonagh said that McDonald’s had a number of terms trademarked that the US multinational never used – such as “snack box”.
“You either use it or lose it… you can’t stash away all these trademarks and have them in reserve or what they call trademark bullying to stop someone from doing something,” he said.
This now opens the door for the decision to be made by the European trademark office to allow us to use our SuperMac as a burger across Europe.
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