This seems exceedingly strange to me. Is that really correct?
By analogy, you're saying I could open a computer store called MacBook Pro and Apple couldn't do anything about it? Or open a store called Mickey Mouse that sells plush animals, and Disney would be helpless to prevent it?
That doesn't seem plausible.
It's tough because Mac is a common name part and (maybe less common now) nickname, and yet it seems clear that Supermac's was created with the intention of riding McDonald's coattails. It definitely seemed so in the 80s when, I think, Galway didn't have a McDonald's and Dublin and Cork did.
For me, the really perplexing thing is that there is a market for Supermac's outside of Ireland. Then again, their food quality might be a lot better than it was years ago, and McDonald's quality has diminished. I haven't had Supermac's in at least 25 years.
Not sure where you're getting that from -- it's quite the opposite.
McDonald's quarter pounders used to be made from frozen, and all the popular sandwiches would sit around pre-made under heat lamps until somebody ordered one.
Now quarter pounders are made from fresh beef, and all sandwiches are made to order, so they're not sitting around drying up.
Not to mention the McCrispy is a real chicken sandwich now, a million times better than the old McChicken "chicken patty".
McDonald's certainly isn't gourmet or anything, but the quality of their beef and chicken sandwiches have most definitely improved from what they used to be.
(This is the case in the US at least.)
You don't know what you're talking about. It's fine if you don't like McD's, but don't just make things up to justify it.
Yes, i also noticed a beef farm near every McDonald. /s
Really not sure what your point is, to be honest? They stopped using frozen patties for them. Do you use a different definition for fresh vs. frozen meat?
Also I already know what you’re saying is true, doesn’t change the fact the food has something off about it now. I don’t recall people having midnight black shits and stomach pain from eating McDonald’s in the 90s.
I also don’t think this issue is exclusive to McDonalds though. In America, something is just not right with the food supply chains.
You love data, so go checkout the colon cancer rates in America. It’s wild.
Yes you could. My understanding from it is that a trademark is only valid for a certain category of "products", which also applies to company names. For example, if you make a company that sell apple juice, and you choose to call it "Apple", because you're not selling the same category of products as "Apple" which sells computers, it's allowed.
I would find strange that you could call a company selling computers "MacBook" though, but technically it's a shop vs a computer, so not the same kind of thing.
And I think this article is confusing, because it's not "Big Mac" that this restaurant is called. It's "Supermac", which isn't exactly the trademarked name. Maybe it would have been different for a "Big Mac" hamburger restaurant.
In this case, the original complaint was by McDonald's saying that customers would confused the "mac" in Supermac's with the Big Mac. Using your analogy it would like having a company called "Mouse House" that sells anthropomorphic mice characters.
Then try opening a store called Champagne, see what happens.
Champagne is a region, and geographical indications are not trademark in the usual sense, so that's basically fine. Nobody will insist you rename a store as "sparkling wine".