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McDonald's owns your name
According to Tuesday's Guardian (Tuesday's? I´m on vacation; sue me), McDonald's has interceded in an Australian trademark action to keep a local rugby team sponsor from getting a trademark on his own nickname. (Scroll down to the third item.)
Malcolm McBratney - who goes by McBrat - applied for a trademark for his nickname to sell clothing to other fans of Brisbane Irish. McDonald's filed an objection to the trademark application, asserting that "McBrat" is too close to its "McKids" trademark - even though McDonald's uses the trademark exclusively for toys, not clothes. It appears that Mickey D´s has chosen the wrong person to fuck with: McBratney is a trademark lawyer - and he is fighting back by taking action to strip McDonald's of the McKids trademark for abandoning the mark.
Let's hear it for the Aussies: The team continues to sell clothes with the McBrat mark. The town is rallying behind McBrat and the Irish; businesses and people are adding Mc to their names in protest of McDonald's heavyhanded IP practice. And Queensland Premier Peter Beattie spent a day as The Honourable Peter McBeattie in solidarity with the team.
Charles McStar, reporting from Barcelona.
Posted by Charles Star on 07/21/2005 | Permalink
Comments
I hope he wins!!! What a load. I'm sure people are going to confuse him with the corp. giant.
Posted by: Gina | Jul 21, 2005 10:21:00 PM
Telling an Australian what to do, especially if you are bigger than them, is always a bad idea. The corporate trademark police are as crazy as Leo Stoller and after this Supreme Court case it seems on the same shaky legal ground, at least in the US.
I'm surprised that McDonald's hasn't gone after Disney; after all, Mickey & Donald sounds an awful lot like copyright infringement....
Posted by: WisdomWeasel | Jul 22, 2005 9:31:12 AM
I hope he gives them a proper spanking. I'm so tired of these companies trying to throw their weight around. Of course, I'm even more tired of judges who reward them for it.
But let me get this straight...
McDonald's thinks the words "Kids" and "Brat" are synonymous?
Nice one Micky-Dee's.
Posted by: andy | Jul 22, 2005 1:15:28 PM
Haha. Stick it to the man!
Posted by: Jammy | Jul 27, 2005 12:02:27 PM
Mickey Dee should spend the money they are tossing out on this foolish legal case for their McDonald House for kids. Or maybe send a terminally ill child that loves rugby to Australia for a holiday to meet Malcolm McBratney.
Who is behind this greedy behavior...the marketing detective that works for MDee that has nothing better to do with their time?
Posted by: maria | Jul 30, 2005 10:02:25 AM
