Yahoo Finance McDonald's forces Korean restaurant in Toronto to change its name
A Korean restaurant in Toronto has been ordered to change its name after global fast-food giant McDonald's wasn't "lovin' it."
Intellectual property lawyers approached the owners of the McRamyun restaurant shortly after it had opened its doors for business earlier this spring, according to BlogTO.
The prefix in "McRamyun," however, was reportedly meant to signify a Korean word meaning "pulse" or "spirit," according to the web site.
McDonald’s failed to agree with the Baldwin Village restaurant, saying the similarities were too close for comfort.
Indeed, while the second half of the restaurant’s sign had been written in red and white capital letters, the prefix was done up in a yellow hue often associated with McDonald’s trademark golden arches.
A full statement from the daughter of the McRamyun owners to BlogTO reads:
"Basically, the legal representatives of McDonald's sent us a letter back in May saying they own the trademark of the prefix "Mc" and "Mac" before any food item.
Because of the costs and time associated with changing the actual registered name (for government and license registration purposes), we initially told them we would remove the use of Mc in public facing documents, but would keep the registered name as is.
After a few more email correspondents, they came back offering Aug 31st as the last day for any public facing materials, and Oct 31st as the last day to change the government registered name.
It was a resource intensive transition period and an expensive lesson learned for my parents, but as of Nov 1st, all of this mess is behind us."
The restaurant has since re-branded itself ‘Mo’Ramyun’ with the prefix now emblazoned on the sides of the building in white, and the owners hope the issue is now behind them.
