McDonald’s loses in chicken ‘Big Mac’ trademark dispute

An EU court ruled on Wednesday that McDonald’s has lost its trademark “Big Mac” for chicken products but kept it for beef, following a long-running dispute with Irish rival Supermac’s.

The ruling by the General Court followed a move by the EU Intellectual Property Office in 2019 that revoked McDonald’s registration of the trademark, arguing that the world’s largest fast-food chain had not shown genuine use of it over the five-year period before the case was filed in 2017.

Supermac’s claimed that McDonald’s used the trademark to prevent the expansion of Supermac’s in the bloc. The EU regulator found that the US company was not able to show so-called genuine use of the “Big Mac” trademark, which had been registered for McDonald’s in 1996.

On Wednesday, the EU court partially upheld that ruling, revoking McDonald’s right to use the trademark for selling the chicken version of its “Big Mac” burger, but allowing it to retain protection for the chain’s traditional recipe with beef.

Pat McDonagh, Supermac’s managing director, said: “This is a significant ruling that takes a common sense approach to the use of trademarks by large multinationals. It represents a significant victory for small businesses throughout the world.”

The ruling can still be appealed against in the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union.

“The decision by the EU General Court does not affect our right to use the ‘BIG MAC’ trademark,” McDonald’s said. “Our iconic Big Mac is loved by customers all across Europe.”

The Luxembourg-based court said: “The General Court holds that McDonald’s has not proved genuine use within a continuous period of five years in the European Union in connection with certain goods and services.”

It added that the evidence provided by McDonald’s did not give any “indication of the extent of use” of the Big Mac trademark in relation with goods prepared from poultry, in particular in connection with the volume of sales, the length of time the trademark was used and how frequently it was used.

“The General Court holds that McDonald’s has not proved that the contested mark has been put to genuine use as regards the goods ‘chicken sandwiches’, the goods ‘foods prepared from poultry products’ and the ‘services rendered or associated with operating restaurants and other establishments or facilities [ . . . ]” it said.

This is not the first high-profile trademark dispute before the EU courts this year. In April, the court ruled that the name of the dead Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar could not be registered as a trademark in the EU.