Malaysia’s highest court has ended an eight-year trademark dispute between fast food giant McDonald’s and local restaurant McCurry. In April, Malaysia’s appeals court overturned a lower court decision and ruled that McCurry did not infringe the MCDONALD’S trademark. Significant to the court’s findings were features used alongside the names: specifically, McDonald’s uses a yellow “golden arch” logo while McCurry uses a smiling chicken alongside its name. The court also noted that McCurry offers a menu of Indian food rather than Western food, and that none of McCurry’s food items were named with the “Mc” prefix. Based on these and other factors, the court stated that “”McCurry’s Restaurant signboard would not result in reasonable persons associating McCurry with the McDonald’s mark.”
This month (September 2009), the court denied McDonald’s request to contest the decision.
Would a United States court have reached the same decision?
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