MCDONAGH .... 1 MCDONALD’S..0 Irish firm tastes victory in legal battle over Big Mac trademark
Sinn Fein slams rainy day fund
SUPERMAC’S bosses will be licking their lips after winning a court battle with Mcdonald’s over the use of the iconic Big Mac trademark.
The legal success paves the way for the Irish food chain to apply to register its own name across Europe.
Supermac’s is derived from the surname of founder Pat Mcdonagh, the Galway businessman who had accused Mcdonald’s of “trademark bullying”.
He said of the European Court ruling: “It’s pretty much a landmark decision because worldwide I think other companies are going to copy it.
“There’s a lot of bigger companies out there who have used this to stop other businesses from using names or starting up.
“Basically what it means for us is we have the right now to apply and have our Supermac name registered as a trademark across Europe.”
The firm has persuaded the European Union Intellectual Property Office to cancel Mcdonald’s use of the Big Mac trademark, opening the way for expansion across Britain and continental Europe.
Mr Mcdonagh added: “They SINN Fein has called for the Government to drop its plans for a “rainy day fund”.
TD Jonathan O’brien claimed the National Surplus Bill would be used to write a blank cheque to the banks.
He added: “This Bill is the much advertised rainy day fund that has been sold by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as an insurance policy to help the Irish economy in the event of a downturn or economic trouble registered quite a number of names right across the world so nobody else could use them and what the European Court has done is release the opportunity.”
Mr Mcdonagh said he was never going to back down from the challenge.
He told Today With Sean O’rourke: “It began really when we applied for the European trademark for Supermac’s to be registered as a trademark in Europe.
“Mcdonald’s objected and they were successful on the grounds we were similar to what they did.
“If you go into a Supermac’s it’s totally different to a Mcdonald’s, so then we objected to their trademark for the Big Mac and that now has been decided upon by the European Union in Alicante and they have revoked the Big Mac trademark.
“They also registered the name Snack Box which really annoyed us because they never used it in their outlets across the world.
“They did use the world Super Mac for a while for a product in Spain, but it opens the door for us to register our own Supermac in Europe as a trademark.” in the future. The fund will most probably be used to bail out the banks in the event that they make the same mistakes of the past. This fact is spelled out in the Bill itself.
“Instead of writing a blank cheque to the banks with taxpayers’ money, the Government should be working to solve the cost of living crisis and failure of our housing system.”