McDonald’s International Property Company could not convince a court that Lantua, a Lithuanian company which produces sushi under the Mak Sushi brand, represents an infringement on McDonald’s’ trademark rights.
On October 21, the Vilnius Regional court rejected an appeal from McDonald’s of a decision by the Lithuanian Patent Bureau on February 15 of this year to register the Mak Sushi trademark.
“Some elements of the compared trademarks (Mc, MAC and MAK) are partially similar, but the court holds that the mere repetition of individual letters cannot determine trademark similarity,” the ruling said.
McDonald’s argued in court that most of its products are branded with the recurring and unifying verbal element “Mac,” which is used both in its full and abbreviated forms. The company says that more than 36,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries in the world, including 17 in Lithuania, bear these marks.
The McDonald’s brand was valued at USD 36.86 billion in 2023 – 9th on the Interbrand ranking of the world’s most valuable brands.
Lantua, for its part, argued that “Mak” and “Mc” differ by two letters and that “Mac” I sonly used in one of the global fast food giant’s trademarks, the Big Mac, where the “Mac” element is at the end of the concept. Thus only certain elements of the trademarks are similar, not the trademarks themselves.
The company, which is based in the district of Klaipeda also pointed out that the Mak Sushi trademark features a drawing a panda holding some bamboo and that McDonald’s has simply ignored the fact that this has no direct or logical equivalent to any McDonald’s trademarks.
The ruling can be appealed to the Court of Appels within 30 days.
Source: BNS
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