Teen's charity name draws the McIre of McDonald's

[Candyman5]

Quote:

You couldn't blame Lauren McClusky of Chicago if she were a bit squeamish about using her last name in this story without fear of reprisal from Ronald McDonald and his legal posse. For McClusky, 19, finds herself at the center of a thorny dispute that involves a series of charity concerts she's put on over the past three years. She dubbed the event "McFest" (more on that in a moment) -- but McDonald's sees that as an infringement on its trademarks, something the McDonaldland lawyers refer to as "the McFamily of brands." These include (deep breath): McPen, McBurger, McBuddy, McWatch, McDouble, McJobs, McShirt, McPool, McProduct, McShades, McFree, McRuler, McLight -- and even the prefix "Mc" itself. "But not McFest," pointed out McClusky, who declined to change her last name for this story. "The whole reason I called it McFest in the first place is my name." Her original co-chair for the first McFest also shared the "Mc" prefix in her surname, so it seemed a natural. And indeed, not a single McDonald's attorney seemed to object in 2007 and 2008, when McClusky's McFests raised $30,000 for the Chicago chapter of Special Olympics. But 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. The daughter of independent radio promoter Jeff McClusky, Lauren McClusky could of course just change the event name. But that would involve starting from square one in terms of the awareness and name recognition she's already created for her concert series. "It's hard to change the name of something that's already established and locally known," she said. As for McDonald's actions, McClusky says she's frustrated by the company's desire to clamp down on and in effect penalize a charity event -- especially when McDonald's supports Special Olympics as well. "It has nothing to do with food, arches or their colors," she said. "And our M's are pointy, not curved." McClusky hopes for a truce that will allow her to keep the McFest name. Still, she's unwilling to make a corporate sponsorship tradeoff along the lines of "McDonald's Presents McFest." For their part, McDonald's representatives maintained that they have no desire to squash McClusky's charitable efforts, and desire an "amicable resolution." "However, the law requires us to guard against third parties that infringe our trademarks and to take the necessary action to stop those infringements," said McDonald's spokeperson Ashlee Yingling. "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." The company declined further comment, citing the pending litigation -- or, if you prefer, further McLegal action. McClusky said that at first, she was "kind of honored" that McDonald's would even care enough to respond to her McFest trademark applications. "But when we realized how serious it was, then it just got ridiculous and offensive. They just wouldn't listen."

Wow, .

[legendkiller5]

Another reason to hate McDonald's.

[bgeno]

Corporations need to protect their trademarks, regardless of who infringes on them.

You have to protect them in order to maintain them. If McDonalds doesn't take action now and some other corporation comes around and has a similar idea to the McFest in name, and McDonalds takes action then, the corporation could simply point out how McDonalds did nothing about the "McFest." It doesn't have anything to do with McDonalds being afraid that this chick is cashing on the McDonalds name and everything to do with some company in the future using the McFest as a defense as to why they should be able to use a term trademarked (or nearly trademarked in this case) by McDonalds.

Quote:

"... the law requires us to guard against third parties that infringe our trademarks."

That's just the way the law is.

It's the same reason Penn State wouldn't allow some high school to use the Nittany Lion logo with different colors a few years ago. Sure, that one little high school isn't threatening Penn State's brand, but someone in the future may be able to say that Penn State didn't stop that school from using the logo, so why should they stop us?




That being said...

I would think McDonalds would be best off to somehow jump on board with the McFest by becomming a sponsor of the event or something. This makes them look bad in the public eye, regardless of the law. They should make some sort of settlement to allow the girl to use it in exchange for free advertising.

[p_rushing]

McDonald's should agree to match all donations and in turn can sponsor the event. The girl though doesn't want that and is dragging it out. I think she is trying to get the story out there and get more publicity against big bad McDonalds.

[Candyman5]

"McDonald's may win in court over teen's charity name, but losing big in court of public opinion"

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/0...-but-losing%2F

[Cebby]

Quote: Originally Posted by bgeno

Corporations need to protect their trademarks, regardless of who infringes on them. You have to protect them in order to maintain them. If McDonalds doesn't take action now and some other corporation comes around and has a similar idea to the McFest in name, and McDonalds takes action then, the corporation could simply point out how McDonalds did nothing about the "McFest." It doesn't have anything to do with McDonalds being afraid that this chick is cashing on the McDonalds name and everything to do with some company in the future using the McFest as a defense as to why they should be able to use a term trademarked (or nearly trademarked in this case) by McDonalds.

If that's the case then McDonalds should have trademarked every single word in the dictionary with a "Mc" in front.

[eXperiment63]

I LOVE how they TMd McJob after bitching and moaning when the term was introduced.

[snepp]

McDouchebags™