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news McDonald's loses second 'Mc' trademark case against Supermac's

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This is interesting from a TM point of view. TM law has certain limits and this is proof.

McDonalds now facing the reality that Mc is the prefix meaning 'son of' for Irish Family names. Other prefixes are Mac (Scotland), O' (Ireland), Ó (Ireland). For daughters it is 'Ni', 'Nic' and wives 'Beann Úi'.

Just as a matter of interest there is a suffix in Scandinavian languages "son" and "dottir". Svensson - Svens son. Ulfsdottir - Ulfs daughter.

So I think the time of just applying and getting a TM because you are a huge company is over. You will really have to go hard to prove that you have the right to it. I have Dronie and the Internet giant Twitter fought hard to get the rights to that name but they have been denied twice because the term selfie and dronie (selfie from a drone) were already popular terms which Twitter did not come up with. I always check the TM databases. I see hundreds reg'd but that have been rejected, abandoned, rescinded as well as expired. An interesting 'place' to spend time.

I also reject the assumption that a company gets a TM automatically through usage. Show me the paperwork. In a Swedish court of law you need that paperwork 'buddy' (American Idiom)! Now even an american judge demanded paperwork in a case. Can't find that link.

McDonald's loses second 'Mc' trademark case against Supermac's

Edited: This case of course refers to the use of mac. 'Mc Day' is coming too!!!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I bought a great domain name for finance the other day and when I researched I found a lot of trademarks where the term was included in the LOGO but there was ALWAYS a disclaimer for the term itself. A financial term.

You can be fooled that when a company has a TM on their logo that the text is also trademarked, but there may be exclusions in the wording on that logo. In the case of this term they had to specifically reject the claim to a TM of that term in the logo.

Research research.
 
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I saw McVegan.com drop on GoDaddy awhile back and wondered about this exact TM issue.
 
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TM is a challenge especially when you are not fully informed.
 
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I wanted to say I wish them and companies that have similar intention more of it, but let me restrain myself:xf.grin::xf.cool:
 
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If they come out with a SuperMac Burger they might not be so lucky.
 
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They will claim they own mc everycombination don't pitch anything to them let them come to you.
 
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They will claim they own mc everycombination don't pitch anything to them let them come to you.
Exactly. Anything you say/write to them can be used against you.
 
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