In what is being described as a “landmark judgment”, Irish fast food chain Supermac’s has prevailed in a dispute with McDonald’s over the use of the BIG MAC trademark. According to one expert, the decision should serve as a “warning” to multinational companies in David versus Goliath cases.
McDonald’s offered affidavits of use, marketing brochures, printouts of advertising featuring a Big Mac sandwich, all to no avail. In response to the evidence presented, Supermac’s argued it was “insufficient to prove that the EUTM was put to genuine use for anything other than sandwiches.” McDonald’s didn’t prove “genuine use of the trademark,” the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled.
The case “serves as a warning to multinational companies that they can no longer simply file trademark applications without a genuine intention to use it (a bit like cybersquatting but instead “trademark squatting”),” one intellectual property owner told World Trademark Review.