McDonald's loses trade mark battle

A Chinese immigrant yesterday won the right to challenge the might of McDonald's with his McChina oriental fast-food restaurant chain.

Frank Yuen opened his first McChina in Wimbledon in 1991 and planned to set up a "large national fast food chain" by 1995 offering Chinese food as an alternative to hamburgers, pizza and chicken.

But the McDonald's Corporation objected when he tried to register his restaurant name as a trade mark and he was refused.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Neuberger allowed his appeal that McChina would not deceive or cause confusion and now his restaurants can continue to trade under the name.

The judge said McDonald's had objected because they claimed established rights for their marks, which all include Mc or Mac. Some of its Oriental options include Chicken McNugget Shanghai, Oriental McRib and McFortune Cookie.

But the judge said this range of McDonald's-style oriental food did not come on to the market until after 1992, when Yuen first applied for his trademark.

He said of McDonald's: "They are virtually seeking to monopolise all names and words with the prefix Mc or Mac, at least in relation to food or restaurant services."

McDonald's claimed nearly 30% of 2,000 people it surveyed in 1996 had thought McChina was part of McDonald's. Its restaurant manager in Camberley said two people had called asking if the nearby McChina's was part of McDonald's.

Yuen argued he had used the prefix Mc to signify "son of" and the public would recognise this.

The judge concluded that McChina's customers would almost all be looking for oriental food, while McDonald's customers would only be seeking it as one of a variety of options. He did not believe substantial numbers of people would be confused.