McDonald's Loses 'Big Mac' Name Rights for Chicken Sandwich in Shocking Development
“What’s in a name?” Juliet Capulet said in Shakespeare’s famous play about a pair of star-crossed lovers. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
One wonders whether she’d feel the same way about a McDonald’s chicken sandwich.
McDonald’s had been marketing chicken sandwiches in Europe under the “Big Mac” brand, which the BBC said had been popularized “for large burger sandwiches,” but that could change now that the company has lost its trademark on the name, at least with regard to white meat.
“McDonald’s loses the EU trade mark ‘Big Mac’ in respect of poultry products,” the E.U.’s European Court of Justice ruled, saying that the company hadn’t proved that ” had made genuine use of the trademark for a continuous period of five years,” according to the BBC.
The ruling means that McDonald’s can keep calling their chicken Big Macs by that name if the company wishes — but other companies can do so as well.
McDonald’s still owns the term when it comes to what Americans typically think of as a Big Mac — a beef hamburger.
The company did not tell the BBC whether it plans to appeal the decision, or if it plans to rename its chicken sandwiches in Europe.
The court’s finding was the result of a dispute that began in 2017 between McDonald’s and Supermac, an Irish fast-food chain that also sells “beef and chicken burgers and chicken nuggets at 120 red and white branded outlets,” the outlet reported.
Supermac had attempted to register its company name as a trademark preparatory to possible international expansion, according to the BBC, and McDonald’s “blocked” the move.
Supermac managing director Pat McDonagh “countered that McDonald’s was not using its trademark for restaurants, so other firms should not be blocked from using the term ‘Mac’ in their names,” the BBC said.
“We knew when we took on this battle that it was a David versus Goliath scenario,” McDonagh told the BBC.
“We wholeheartedly welcome this judgement as a vindication of small businesses everywhere that stand up to powerful global entities,” he added.
Over the past 70 years, McDonald’s has grown from one California restaurant to more than 36,000 in over 100 countries, according to the company’s website.
The company has recently been the target of numerous social media posts that have claimed it has raised prices by more than the inflation rate.
Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA, refuted those claims in an “open letter” to McDonald’s customers dated May 29.
“I can tell you that it frustrates and worries me, and many of our franchisees, when I hear about an $18 Big Mac meal being sold – even if it was at one location in the U.S. out of more than 13,700,” he wrote in the letter, which was posted to the company website. “More worrying, though, is when people believe that this is the rule and not the exception, or when folks start to suggest that the prices of a Big Mac have risen 100% since 2019.
“The average price of a Big Mac in the U.S. was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger added. “Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That’s an increase of 21% (not 100%).”
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