Malaysia’s Highest Court Dismissed McDonald’s Trademark Prosecution

September 15, 2009
Malaysia’s Highest Court ruled September 8 that the well-known US fast-food company McDonald’s did not enjoy exclusive possession of the prefix “Mc”.

McDonald’s logo in English is “McDonald’s.” However, after entering the Malaysia market, McDonald’s found that there was a local food company using a similar logo. The name of the local company was “Penang Curry House,” which later changed its name to “McCurry” and mainly sold Indian food. McDonald’s believed that the use of the capital letter of “M” and lower case “c” in the logo of McCurry was infringing its trademark, while McCurry said the letter M and c respectively represent abbreviations of the words Malaysia and chicken, and did not admit to any violations.

After negotiations failed in 2001, McDonald’s sued McCurry in the local court. After the trial, the District Court rejected the claims of McDonald’s and McDonald’s appealed the decision to Malaysia’s Highest Court.

“It is unfortunate that we had to dismiss of the application with costs because the plaintiff’s side (McDonald’s) proposed insufficient evidence,” said Arifin Zakaria, Judge of the Malaysia’s Highest Court. According to the court’s ruling, McDonald’s will have to pay USD 2,900 to McCurry for its loses.

“We feel great that this eight-year legal battle is finally over, and we can now go ahead with whatever we plan to do,” said the owner of McCurry outside the court.

　

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