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> allowing some other company to use "Big Mac" for a chicken sandwich seems like a bad call

Right? Imagine someone asks you what you'd like to eat. You say "I'll have a Big Mac." Would one assume you meant a chicken sandwich? Or a salad? No, people would think you're talking a burger, a specific kind of burger.

In practice the major consequence is that they can no longer prevent others from operating restaurants with 'mac' in the name (this all arose then Supermacs attempted to expand throughout Europe, and McDonalds stopped them on the basis of the Big Mac trademark).

> While the Big Mac doesn't use chicken

At least in the UK, they've sold a "Chicken Big Mac" as a special menu item twice now