Your brand is your most valuable asset: Ferrari®. Costco®. Your own name. It legitimizes and differentiates you from the competition. But what happens when the government decides it doesn’t belong to you anymore?
Let’s ask the world’s largest fast-food chain, Mcdonald’s, who recently lost their right to trademark its flagship product, the “Big Mac,” in the European Union (EU). McDonald’s has over 10,000 restaurants in Europe, and every one of them sells the “Big Mac.” Ireland-based competitor, Supermac’s wanted to start selling “SuperMac” burgers in Europe and Mcdonald’s moved to block them. According to McDonald’s, the public would confuse the “SuperMac” with the “Big Mac.” Supermac certainly sounds like an obvious knockoff to me. But, here’s where it gets crazy.
SuperMac countered that McDonald’s should be stripped of its right to the “Big Mac” brand on the ground that the Big Mac isn’t sold to the public. Crazy, huh? Stay tuned.
In Europe, that issue is decided by The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) – – a government bureaucracy (beware the “B word” – – bureaucracy). After a year long battle, the EU regulators ruled that McDonalds had not proven “genuine use” of the trademark in the five years prior to the case being lodged in 2017. Essentially, Big Mac’s aren’t being sold to the public, so the EUIPO stripped McDonald’s of its trademark.
It took me exactly 54 seconds (I timed it) to download McDonald’s menus from England, France, Germany and Belgium. Each of the menus featured the “Big Mac” and last I checked, all those countries were in Europe. I have even personally eaten a Big Mac in Europe!
But, like the song says, “It don’t matter to me (the bureaucracy).” Big Macs “aren’t” being sold in Europe and McDonald’s – – you don’t own “Big Mac.”
Next case.