McDonald's McBullies McTeen-Led McCharity Event Over Use of McPrefix

[Raejeanowl]

Two socially conscious Chicago teens, one of them the daughter of a radio industry professional, and both of them understandably proud of their coincidentally shared Scottish surnames, fulfilled a mutual dream of raising money for the local Special Olympics via an annual musical event. They combined their talents, their names, and the festival concept to chair and promote a successful fund-raising effort in 2007, 2008 and 2009 that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the program.

Failing to anticipate that the McDonald's Corporation might regret not having explicitly locked up a name unrelated to their primary business sooner in their "family of brands", one of them sought to better establish for posterity the event they innocently dubbed and allowed to become known as the "McFest" by legally registering its name.

"...when McClusky applied to have the McFest name protected, McDonald's filed an opposition. So instead of donating funds from her 2009 concert to Special Olympics, McClusky's had to hire lawyers to answer a series of administrative proceedings McDonald's filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. To date, it's cost her roughly $5,000 -- money she wishes had gone to Special Olympics kids instead of attorneys."

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/01/17/teens-charity-name-draws-the-mcire-of-mcdonalds/?icid=main

[niyad]

1. yet another reason to boycott that disgusting chain. by the way, how much have they donated to

haitian relief efforts?

[Stephanie]

8. Half a million

One million when combined with their SA affiliates. Still wouldn't eat there though.

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/media_center/recent_news/corporate/Changes.html

[depakid]

12. Half a million? against how much in yearly profit all over the world?

Nothing would be better than to see a huge multi-billion dollar judgment assessed against this abusive corporation.

Well, maybe bankruptcy might.

[blaze]

2. McFuck 'Em!!!

What and incredibly stupid response.

They could have jumped on the band wagon, joined in, and made this a publicity jackpot for themselves.

But no.

I wasn't entirely sure *which* corporate mail box to send my complaint to... your pick:

http://www.mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us.html

[Raejeanowl]

6. I Used This One

http://www1.mcdonalds.com/contactus/navigate.do?link=mcbiz

This is the reply they sent me:

Hello Raejean:


Thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's. We would llike (sic) to take this opportunity to share some information with you.

Regarding this matter, McDonald's has no desire to prevent this event from taking place. That is not our intent. However, the law requires us to guard against third parties that infringe our trademarks and to take the necessary action to stop those infringements.

We believe the mark at issue, "McFest," is similar enough to our brand name and McDonald's famous family of "Mc" trademarks that it's likely to cause confusion under trademark standards and/or dilute our valuable trademark rights

We hope to reach an amicable resolution with the organizers to resolve this matter so they can continue to run their event. Because this is a pending legal matter, it would be inappropriate to further comment or speculate.

Jamie
McDonald's Customer Response Center

ref#:6614406

Needless to say, I and the people and descendants of Scotland are of the opinion that they do not have a lock on the "Mc" prefix, and that the use of the event name "McFest" in no way infringes upon their existing trademarks, especially when music festivals have nothing to do with the nature of their primary trade identification. Nor does anything in the law REQUIRE them to behave like overreaching McIdiots.

[blaze]

7. I received a more generic response

"Thank you for visiting McDonald's website. Below is your email which has been submitted to McDonald's Customer Response Center. While replies to this e-mail cannot be received, should you need to contact us again, please feel free to contact us through mcdonalds.com. Thank you."

Looking at the response you received... I guess anything with a "Mc" in front of it is fair game.

:eyes:

[omega minimo]

3. Does Scotland know they've violated McDonald's franchise?

[Warpy]

5. Ireland sure doesn't

although, being Irish, I'm sure they'd tell those corporate lawyers to go fuck themselves with a chainsaw.

[muntrv]

4. I'm surprised McDonalds hasn't evicted everyone from Ireland and Scotland.

[XemaSab]

11. Just like the British tried to?

:hide:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. Grandmom's name was McEachern, pronounced McCann.

:toast:

[XemaSab]

10. As someone with a Scots-Irish surname

I'm hereby announcing my intent to sue McDonald's for copyright infringement. :grr:

[Raejeanowl]

13. There You Go!

That's the idea. Although I did have this very amusing thought last night that, instead of a boycott, we should round up all the bagpipers we know in a volunteer effort to just take odd, random and VERY LOUD walk-throughs (or drive-thoughs: "Yes, I'd like a BLAAAAATTTTT!!!!") at their local McDummy's. franchise.

Hey, it kept ME entertained!!!!:7

[jberryhill]

14. Something is missing from this story...

McDonald's is not trying to stop her from holding the event, or stopping her from calling it McFest.

The dispute is over her application to federally register it as a mark, and thus obtain the right to stop anyone else in the US from using the term.

She held the event for three years, and McDonald's didn't try to stop her.

When you file an application for federal trademark registration, that application eventually reaches a point where it is published for opposition. McDonald's apparently decided to oppose her registration.

In response to the opposition, she could simply withdraw the trademark registration application. She loses nothing by doing that, and it does not affect her ability to keep holding the event.

But the context here is her application for federal registration of the mark, which would give her the privilege to sue the bejeezus out of anyone else in the US who uses it. That's what McDonald's is opposing.

If she didn't want to pay lawyers to fight the opposition, she didn't have to. What she's trying to do is to establish her own piece of turf from which to bully others.

And, btw, for all the corporation-haters... it's not even her application:

Word Mark MC FEST
Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Organizing, arranging, conducting, and producing concerts and live events. FIRST USE: 20070410. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20070410
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77511690
Filing Date June 30, 2008
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition February 17, 2009
Owner (APPLICANT) McFest LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY ILLINOIS 1644 N. Honore St. Chicago ILLINOIS 60603
Attorney of Record Jeffrey Ryan Hinshaw, esq
Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "FEST" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

[northzax]

15. Stop being sensible.

We got ourselves a good five minutes of hate going on abs you aren't helping.

[jberryhill]

16. I'm sorry....

But when I saw it was an opposition proceeding in the USPTO, my spidey-sense went off.

It would be one thing if they were trying to shut her down, but they are only fighting the federal registration.

It's an interesting contest, but one which she did not have to engage.