Recently , a European Court ruled in favour of US fast food giant McDonald\u2019s, restraining a Singapore based company from using the word \u2018Mac\u2019 as a prefix on its foods and beverages. One of the primary aims of every trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion. Trademark law provides exclusive rights to the proprietors of a particular trademark, thus allowing them to carve out a niche for their product in the existing market.<\/p>\n
In 2008, a Singaporean Company had applied for registration at the EU trademark office for the word \u2018MacCoffee\u2019 for its foods and beverages line. McDonald\u2019s opposed this registration stating that 13 of its registered trademarks already contained the words \u2018Mac\u2019 and \u2018Mc\u2019. It also opposed the registration by arguing that, the registration of the word \u2018MacCoffee\u2019 would lead to consumer confusion and the Singaporean Company would unjustly benefit from the global reputation which McDonald\u2019s possesses. The European trademark office agreed to the contentions put forth by McDonald\u2019s and refused registration.<\/p>\n
The Singaporean Company, Future Enterprises took the matter to the European General Court. The European General Court also refused the registration. The Court stated that the word \u2018MacCoffee\u2019 and the trademarks of MC Donald\u2019s are phonetically similar. This would create an impression that the products bearing the word \u2018MacCoffee\u2019 are linked to McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The judges supporting the decision of the EU trademark office stated the following-\u201cThe repute of McDonald’s trademarks makes it possible to prevent the registration, for foods or beverages, of trademarks combining the prefix ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’ with the name of a foodstuff or beverage.\u201d They further said , \u201cIndeed, 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\u201d.\u00a0 This is not the first win for McDonald’s. We have already discussed in our blog a trademark dispute which McDonald’s had won against Supermac, an Irish fast food Company. The post which discussed this dispute can be accessed here.<\/a><\/p>\n