Malaysia Boleh:McCurry Bests McDonald's

US' McDonald's loses trademark fight against M'sian McCurry

Wow, I don't believe it but it's true. I guess it is possible to beat an international company in a lawsuit.
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PUTRAJAYA: US fast food giant McDonald’s lost an eight-year trademark battle to prevent local restaurant
McCurry from using the ‘Mc’ prefix in a precedent-setting judgment by Malaysia’s highest court.

The Federal Court ruled Tuesday that McDonald’s cannot appeal against another court’s verdict that had allowed McCurry to use ‘Mc’ in its name. The owner says McCurry, which serves Indian food, is an abbreviation for Malaysian Chicken Curry.

The ruling by a three-member panel of the Federal Court ends all legal avenues for McDonald’s to protect its name from what it said was a trademark infringement.

File pic shows McCurry restaurant owner, P. Suppiah, putting the 'c' back onto the signboard of his shop on April 30 after winning the earlier court case. The simple gesture marked the end of an eight-year David and Goliath court case against US fastfood giant McDonalds to keep the name of his Indian restaurant located on Jalan Ipoh. Starpic by Ibrahim Mohtar

“On the basis of unanimous decision, our view is that” McDonald’s plea to carry the case forward has no merit, said chief judge Arifin Zakaria. “It is unfortunate that we have to dismiss the application with costs,” he said.

McDonald’s will have to pay RM10,000 to McCurry, a popular eatery in Jalan Ipoh on the edge of Kuala Lumpur’s downtown. McDonald’s lawyers refused to comment, except to say the company will abide by the judgment.

McCurry lawyer Sri Devi Nair said the ruling means McDonald’s does not have a monopoly on the prefix ‘Mc,’ and that other restaurants could also use it as long as they distinguish their food from McDonald’s.

“This is a precedent for everyone to follow,” he said.

A view of the McCurry shop. - Star file pic

A three-member Appeal Court panel had ruled in favour of McCurry Restaurant in April this year when it overturned a 2006 high court ruling that had upheld McDonald’s contention.

Arifin said McDonald’s lawyers were unable to point out faults in the Appeal Court judgment, which had said there was no evidence to show that McCurry was passing off McDonald’s business as its own. The Appeals Court also said McDonald’s cannot claim an exclusive right to the ‘Mc’ prefix in the country.

McDonald’s asked the Federal Court for permission to appeal against that decision but was denied Tuesday.

“We are very much relieved. We hope to expand. This is what we wanted to do from the beginning and we were stalled for eight years,” said A.M.S.P. Suppiah, the owner of McCurry.

“I am so happy ... we have nothing in similarity with them at all. That’s how we have felt all this while,” said his wife, Kanageswary Suppiah.

The Appeal Court said McCurry’s signboard has white and grey letters against a red background with a picture of a smiling chicken giving a double thumbs-up, in contrast to McDonald’s red and yellow “M” logo. McCurry also serves only Indian food, not competing with McDonald’s Western menu, the court said.

McDonald’s began operations in Malaysia in 1982 and has 137 outlets in the country. -- AP

Taken from
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/8/business/20090908111316&sec=business

McValue Meals Frenzy

McDonald's was a place where only people who had enough extra money could afford to go in and buy food.

Fortunately, changing times have caused the price to drop (or did inflation occur?) so that most of us can enjoy it.

As everyone who dines at McDonald's should know,they have a promotion from 12 noon till 3pm and reduces the prices to almost 30% during that time period.

(McChicken McValue Meal now costs Rm5.95 from the usual RM9.25 at that time frame.)

From allocated time, we can see that they are trying to attract more youths and office workers to buy their products.

A good but ironic reason to try this sometime is because you can actually reduce the amount of calories you consume because they have done the math for you.(Read the info on the paper they put on the tray)And also that the proportions are not very big(when compared to American fast food meals in America, we seem to have mini sizes) so, as long as you do not over eat.