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McDonald's might be the home of a smiling clown and friendly "I'm lovin' it" ads, but when it comes to defending their trademarks, they're notoriously ruthless.
Erin Wade and Allison Arevalo, friends and small business owners in Oakland, CA, recently discovered it's unwise to tread on anything the burger giant considers a trademark. The duo planned to name their restaurant -- a neighborhood joint featuring macaroni and cheese made from artisanal cheeses and local ingredients -- Little Mac. But last week, corporate counsel for the Golden Arches nixed the name, claiming that the word "mac" is the intellectual property of McDonalds.
Wade says they were stunned: "We were like, wait a minute, we're a mac and cheese shop and we can't use the word 'mac' at all?"
When the pair chose the name six months ago, they knew enough about the law to consult with a small business lawyer (Wade was an attorney before she decided to launch a restaurant). "We were worried about every use of 'mac'," she says. "We wanted to know if it would be an issue with Apple computer and M.A.C cosmetics too, not just McDonald's." The lawyer told them not to worry, since the term is such commonly used shorthand for macaroni and cheese.
Flash forward six months. As their opening approached, the duo couldn't shake the worry that McDonald's might perceive the name Little Mac as a riff on the Big Mac burger. To settle the issue once and for all, Wade called up McDonald's corporate counsel. "They told her that if we open a restaurant with 'mc' or 'mac' in the name, they will sue us," says Arevalo, "even if it clearly relates to mac and cheese."
And while they'd love to fight back, Arevalo and Wade say they can't afford to defend a suit from the corporate giant, even if they think it's without merit. "Defending it legally would put us under," says Wade. "A lot of people are telling us we should spell it in crazy way, but if we try it and they sue us anyway, we're still screwed."
So Little Mac is no more, but the pair are not deterred. They've launched a contest to come up with a new, mac-free name. They're offering a lifetime of mac and cheese to the winning entrant at Arevalo's blog, Local Lemons. They debuted their nameless mac and cheese a few days ago at an underground farmers' market in San Francisco, and opened the name up to the community. So far, the suggestions have included Macalicious, Corkscrew You, and Elbow Room.
The irony? "Something like 70 percent of the suggestions we get still include the word 'mac'," says Wade. Because whether McDonald's likes it or not, when you're talking about macaroni and cheese, it's a hard term to avoid.
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6-09-2010 @1:46PM Bobby said... what abotu s'mac in NYC?
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6-10-2010 @2:16AM Steve McClaren said... Since McDonalds is laying claim that the word Mac is wholly owned by them, then I will be more than certain that they will afford me the rights to part of their millions for the use of my nickname. My father was known as Big Mac and I was know as Little Mac until he passed. If they want to lay claim to that name then I will lay claim to some fame. Any attorneys out there ??? And I am serious !!!!!
6-09-2010 @5:17PM Matt said... I feel like all they'd have to do is open apple.com/mac/ and they'd win the case.
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6-10-2010 @2:12AM Master Shake said... This is how things work in corporate-owned America these days. People have no rights, but corporations can do whatever they want, because they have millions of dollars of full time lawyers on staff to bend the law to their liking. Sure they lose a rare lawsuit on occasion, but for every bizarre case like that, they win a thousand others that you don't even hear about - like this one. In Los Angeles there was a preschool where children had been allowed to paint a wall facing the road. A child painted his version of Mickey Mouse on part of it, and when the lawyers from Disney heard about it, they sued the school and won almost a million dollars in damages. The school went broke and the owners will spend the rest of their lives making payments to Disney. These days you can't help but feed the corporate sharks if you live in the United States. They own EVERYTHING.
6-10-2010 @2:58AM Crimsonrayne said... LOL yeah, kinda hard to prove ownership of a 3 letter word when another corporate giant uses it too. If she was actually using BIG MAC as her name, ok... there's something. But the word itself is literally everywhere...she could make quite a list:
Just walking down the grocery isle... food network... all the mom and pop places, Kraft ... Italy...Then there's all the Mc-something and Mac-something names ppl were born with... ;) lol.
Not to mention the fact that a judge would probably laugh em out of court.
6-10-2010 @7:03AM Robbie said... Many years ago, when Pillsbury tried to push the young "Ben and Jerry's" company off the sidewalk and into the street, by threatening to withdraw their Hagen-Dazs ice cream from any store that continued to sell Ben and Jerry's, Ben and Jerry fought back with their relatively inexpensive, but very public "What's the Doughboy afraid of?" campaign. And David forced Goliath to back off, or those hippies would get them stoned (get the melding of the Bible story and the "stoners?" Cute, huh?). Not only did Pillsbury go away, but B & J's sales more than doubled that year, because of all the sympathy and advertising that came with the campaign.
A side note: I was sad to hear of the demise of the poor Doughboy. Click here: Obituary of the Pillsbury Dough Boy
6-10-2010 @7:17AM Robbie said... Since the above link doesn't appear to be working, just Google "Pillsbury Doughboy's obituary" .
6-09-2010 @7:11PM laura k said... I find this to be so infuriating, and I'm not even the one who was directly affected. It just bugs me that this giant corporation can get away with doing something so obviously douche-y, and because they have big pockets and small players know they can't fight back, Evil Corporation gets away with it. There is no way anyone would mistake one for the other, so it's basically just power mongering. Stupid jerks. I'd boycott the place if I didn't already for the other crappy business practices.
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6-09-2010 @8:11PM john said... GET A GRIP.......TAURA NUT
6-10-2010 @1:13AM just plain Bill said... Yes Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus, and he will bring you a sack of real food, not Mc Dog-do's; some recipes of which are certified "bad for yor heart".
I believe I'll get in my Mack truck, drive down the mac-adam road (which does have similar texture to their over-cooked hockey-pucks), and s-mac-k right into the knee of their im-mac-ulate red-haired dummy.
You may be glad to know that their legal creeps do not always win. After 6 "out-of-court" settlements for serious burns from spilled coffee, "Mac" decided to go to Court with Loretta , the 80-year-old lady who needed skin grafts to repair the damage. The jury made them really sorry (like $4 Million worth, I think) they had not settled that one "out-of-court" too.
There's a "rule" amon
What these folks should do, is go right ahead and name their store. Then, when (and "if") McD sues them, counter-sue claiming harassment; ask for punitive as well as damages for emotional harm (though it was pretty foolish to call them up and ask them); insist (legitimately) that the "venue" must continue to be Oakland. Request a jury trial, go to Court "in propria persona" (represent themselves) or with minimal attorney assistance (get one experienced in such matters) and present only a statement of the facts. I think even most California judges would tell "Big Mac" to "stuff it (with macaroni?), but I suspect that given half a chance, a jury would get her business a nice cash settlement.
6-10-2010 @12:57AM ag said... Yea, its like that in the family court system as well . If you don't have the money to fight the corruption that is going on, you will lose your child. Even spending $100,000 OF DOLLARS even doesn't work some times...........You should read some of the horror stories........Anyway, take care .........peace
6-10-2010 @2:34AM Chris said... And just think of all the money you spent buying name brands. . . .
6-09-2010 @8:12PM HollyY said... I think the Scots should sue McDonald's for trying to gain a monopoly on THEIR names. In fact, Clan MacDonald should sue the heck out of the corporation for copyright infringement! The Clan was around for a lot longer than the restaurant chain has been in existence. In fact, Ray Kroc - the founder of the company, wasn't even Scottish! He was a Czech-American.
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6-09-2010 @9:50PM Kat said... Holly, I adore the way you think :)
6-09-2010 @10:28PM Cindi said... HOLLY... YOU ROCK!!!!! I've been thinking the same thing! And McWhozits REALLY, REALLY, REALLY needs to get over themselves!!! REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6-09-2010 @11:00PM Bryan said... Haven't eaten at mcdonalds for years now. Totally fed up with their corporate bullcrap. Just another reason to never EVER consider giving those thieves any of my money.
6-10-2010 @12:46AM Richard McGregor said... McDonalds is infringing on my name, one of the names I went by in the military was Mac. I think they must drop Mac because I had the name first It has belonged to the Scotch for many centaries. It doesn't even belong the just the Mac Donald clan, it belongs to all Scots.
6-10-2010 @1:07AM Mac said... Holly, the clan already sued them when McDonalds gave a McDonald a hard time for a cafe that had been opened and run by McDonald's for a century. Not to mention the verbal butt-whipping the Head of the clan MacDonald gave them during the McCurry lawsuit.
6-10-2010 @1:49AM matt mclendon said... I wrote to the copy right office about this McDonald's claim of Mc, Mac etc... and was told that names aren't copyrightable. Trademark is different but you have to have a product or slogan to go with it but they don't have the legal ownership of the pre fix, mac, mc etc....
6-11-2010 @2:21PM Mark, UK said... Mac is an old Scottish word meaning "son of". Which is why it ended up in a lot of names.
The equivalent word in Irish is O', In Welsh "Ap". and the English just added "son"to the family name.