McChina food chain wins trade name battle

A Chinese immigrant has won the right to challenge the might of McDonald's with a fast food chain of restaurants called McChina.

Frank Yuen came to England with the ambition of setting up fast food restaurants.

By 1995 he intended that McChina would grow into a large national fast food chain offering Chinese food as an alternative to hamburgers, pizza and chicken.

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

High Court judge Mr Justice Neuberger allowed his appeal that McChina would not deceive or cause confusion.

The judge said McDonald's objected because they claimed established rights for their marks, which all include Mc or MAC.

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

Mr Yuen said he adopted the Mc prefix to signify "son of" and the public would recognise this.

Justice Neuberger concluded that he did not believe the 'Mc' at the beginning of the applicant's proposed mark in connection with the same sort of business would be likely to confuse a substantial number of people.

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