Supermac’s makes fresh trademark attempt

Irish fast food chain Supermac’s has lodged a fresh trademark application with the EU in a bid to expand its presence overseas.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s successfully opposed Supermac’s plans to sell its famous snack box in the UK and Europe by blocking its bid to secure a European trademark for its products.

Supermac’s had intended to appeal the decision. Yesterday was the deadline for it to lodge its appeal documents.

However, instead of doing so, Supermac’s has withdrawn the appeal and lodged a fresh trademark application with the EU Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.

Yesterday, Supermac’s boss, Pat McDonagh said: “I am very confident that this application will be successful. There is no reason why it shouldn’t be.

“The ruling earlier this year wasn’t logical in that allowed us to use the Supermac’s brand but not allow us to use the brand to sell what we make.

"We learned a lot from the last application and in order to put that into effect, we thought it better to re-apply and discard the appeal,” he said.

Mr McDonagh said the new application will have more focus on the products for which Supermac’s wants the trademark and admitted that there may not be a decision from the harmonisation office for a year.

This means McDonald’s has effectively blocked Supermac’s overseas plans for at least two years. Mr McDonagh said he has had six requests from people looking to set up Supermac’s franchise operations in the UK, eastern Europe, Abu Dhabi, China and Tokyo in the last couple of months.

He said that before he proceeds with the international franchisee operations, he wants to obtain the trademark for Supermac’s fast food products in Europe.

“Our plans are to open in Europe first and then further afield,” he said.