McDonald’s confident of winning Supermac’s case

Fast food giant, McDonald’s is confident that its ‘Big Mac’ will prevail over Supermac’s snack box in the firms’ European brand war.

Last month, McDonald’s lodged an objection against Supermac’s revised application to use its name to sell its famous snack boxes, curry chips and other fast food products outside Ireland in the EU.

McDonald’s recorded revenues of $7.8bn (€6.9bn) across Europe in 2014 and is making sure that any competition to its business from the Galway-based Supermac’s across the UK and mainland Europe never gets off the ground.

In a statement made yesterday, McDonald’s Europe explained why it had lodged its objection against the Supermac’s application to register its trade-mark to sell fast food outside Ireland in Europe.

“The McDonald’s brand is a vitally important asset for our business and sometimes we have to take carefully considered and appropriate steps to make sure that it is protected. We are confident that our position will be upheld in this instance.”

Already, McDonald’s has frustrated Supermac’s expansion plans into Europe when earlier this year, the European Commission’s Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (OHIM) upheld the McDonald’s objection.

In a 24-page ruling, the OHIM agreed with McDonald’s that Supermac’s application for a trade-mark was likely to cause confusion amongst the public over the two different fast food brands and their products.

Supermac’s subsequently appealed the refusal but then withdrew the appeal and instead lodged a fresh application in May of this year with the OIHM.

The Galway firm lodged the revised application after boss, Pat McDonagh stated that the company learned a lot from the European decision and had adjusted its application accordingly.

However, McDonald’s — which last year enjoyed global revenues of $25bn — appears determined to ensure that Supermac’s products are never sold in the EU outside Ireland.

Mr McDonagh has already stated that he is optimistic the application will succeed this time around. A final ruling is expected next year.