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McDonald's final defeat by McCurry

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

The IPKat has learned from The Star that McDonald's has lost its final appeal against a Malaysian restaurant's use of the name McCurry (see previous coverage from the IPKat here). The Malaysian Federal Court refused leave to appeal against an earlier decision holding that confusion between the fast food chain and McCurry, which sells Malaysian chicken and fish head curries, was unlikely. McDonald's was also ordered to pay costs after failing to adquately explain how the earlier decision was flawed.

The IPKat has a sneaking sympathy for McDonald's here. He agrees that confusion is unlikely (he can't see fish heads appearing on McDonald's menus any time soon). However, he can't help but wonder if there wasn't just a tiny intention to create an association. Even if the 'Mc' stands for 'Malysian Chicken' as the owner has suggested, isn't it a little odd that a small 'c' is used. What really puzzles the IPKat though is whether an association with McDonald's would really help to shift chicken curry.

Full post as published by IPKat on September 14, 2009 (boomark / email).